Cortlen Malik Henry, the rapper known as YNW Bortlen, accepted a plea deal on September 9, 2025, that ended his prosecution for the October 2018 shooting deaths of two members of the YNW collective. Standing before Broward Circuit Judge Martin S. Fein, Henry pleaded no contest to two counts of accessory after the fact to a capital felony, one count of tampering with a witness, and one count of unlawful use of a two-way communication device. Prosecutors dropped both first-degree murder charges. Judge Fein adjudicated him guilty and imposed a sentence of ten years in prison followed by six years of probation, with credit for roughly four years already served in the Broward County Jail.
The Charges He Pleaded To and the Charges That Went Away
Henry had originally been charged in February 2019 with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of accessory after the fact. A conviction at trial could have carried a life sentence. Under the negotiated agreement, the murder counts were dismissed and Henry entered no-contest pleas to the accessory counts along with the witness tampering count and the communication device count.
The witness tampering charge stemmed from a separate October 2023 arrest. Prosecutors alleged Henry and codefendant Jamell Demons (YNW Melly) had arranged to keep Demons’ ex-girlfriend Mariah Hamilton from cooperating with the state. Hamilton was later jailed for civil contempt after refusing to comply with a court order to testify.
The Ten-Year Sentence
The ten-year prison term fell at the bottom of the sentencing guidelines for the charges Henry admitted to. He received credit for the time he had already spent in custody, which by September 2025 amounted to just under four years, dating from his October 2023 arrest on the tampering charge. After that arrest, he was held without the possibility of returning to house arrest, where he had been released on $180,000 bond in June 2020.
Six years of probation follow the prison sentence. On September 16, 2025, Henry was transferred from the Broward County Jail to the South Florida Reception Center of the Florida Department of Corrections to begin serving the sentence.
Why Prosecutors Offered the Deal
Court documents cited by WQCS explained the state’s reasoning. Prosecutors pointed to Henry’s lack of prior criminal history and to their own read of the evidence, which they described as “insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he participated in a way that would make him a principal to the homicide(s).” The evidence was sufficient, they concluded, to prove he helped conceal the crime after it happened.
The state’s theory of the October 26, 2018, killings was that Demons shot Anthony Williams (YNW Sakchaser), 21, and Christopher Thomas Jr. (YNW Juvy), 19, from the left rear passenger seat of a Jeep Compass after a Fort Lauderdale recording session, and that Henry then drove the vehicle to Memorial Hospital in Miramar around 4:35 a.m. and told police the men had been hit in a drive-by shooting on Interstate 75. Under the plea, Henry admitted to the concealment role, not to the shootings themselves.
Henry’s attorney Joe Nascimento called it a “hard decision” driven by trial risk. “Regardless of how strong your case is, you’re looking at life,” Nascimento said. Co-counsel Fred Haddad, a Fort Lauderdale defense lawyer with more than four decades of experience, told reporters that “Cortlen Henry is not a snitch.”
Does He Have to Testify Against YNW Melly
No. The plea agreement did not require Henry to testify at Demons’ retrial. It did, however, require him to give prosecutors a sworn proffer describing his role in the events of October 26, 2018.
Prosecutors said they planned to use the proffer both to gather details about the shooting and to “lock testimony,” meaning they would have Henry’s account on the record whether or not he ever took the stand. Haddad told the court the remaining questions from the state would be minimal, amounting to “a couple questions, that’s it.”
Even without Henry as a live witness, the proffer could carry weight. Defense attorney Brad Cohen, who has no role in the case, said prosecutors could keep Henry available as a rebuttal witness if Demons testifies in his own defense, and the proffer itself could be used as evidence placing Demons inside the Jeep.
How the Case Got Here
Henry, Demons, Williams, and Thomas were childhood friends from Gifford, in Indian River County, Florida, who performed together as YNW, short for “Young New Wave.” Williams and Thomas were shot inside the Jeep in the early morning hours of October 26, 2018. Henry drove the vehicle to the hospital and reported a drive-by. Investigators grew skeptical after forensic evidence, including wound paths and a .40 caliber shell casing recovered from behind the driver’s seat, contradicted the drive-by account.
Miramar Police arrested Henry and Demons on February 13, 2019. Henry pleaded not guilty in March 2019, was released on bond in June 2020 under house arrest with GPS monitoring, was briefly returned to custody in 2021 for violating those conditions, and was arrested again in October 2023 on the witness tampering charge. He remained in the Broward County Jail from that point until his sentencing.
His murder trial had been set to begin September 10, 2025. He entered the plea the day before.
Where YNW Melly’s Case Stands
Demons’ case has not resolved. His first murder trial in the summer of 2023 ended in a mistrial after the jury deadlocked, with one holdout juror telling reporters afterward that she believed Demons had been framed.
In January 2026, prosecutors dropped the witness tampering charges against Demons. Court filings indicated the judge had deferred ruling on whether jailhouse phone calls central to the tampering case would be admitted, and prosecutors concluded they could not proceed without those recordings. A retrial on the two murder charges is scheduled to begin with jury selection in January 2027. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Demons remains held at the Broward County Main Jail, where he has been since February 2019, and a fourth bond hearing was set for April 30, 2026.
Whether Henry is ever called to testify at that retrial remains a live question. Under the terms of his plea, prosecutors are not obligated to put him on the stand, and his lawyers have signaled he does not intend to volunteer. His sworn proffer, however, is now on the record and available to the state.