After it was revealed that YNW Melly may face the death sentence if convicted, the jailed rapper released a pair of messages in which he expressed concern for his life.
“As of this moment today I am officially in fear of my life,” wrote the rapper alongside his mugshot. “A new Captain named Hubert and XO Jenkins have taken over the jail for two weeks now and have handed out even harsher punishments for me then the previous ones in place. Since December 1 I have been moved and housed on a unit that holds 24 inmates at once. I am the only inmate being housed on the vacant unit, with no phone privilege, no television and no access to a newspaper.”
Melly said that the jail where he is presently being detained, the Broward County Jail in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is constantly watching him and preventing him from publicly disclosing how he is being treated. "When I leave my cell for an hour a day, the other inmates in the nearby dorms must return to their cells." "I am being subjected to cruel and unusual treatment at the hands of Broward Sheriff's Office personnel and high-ranking employees," he wrote.
Sergeant Anthony Kidd and Lieutenant Jean Baptiste, both employees of the Sheriff's office, he claims, threatened to "hide" him and "whip [his] ass."
He went on to say that he now thinks “the next step is them beating [me] half to death like they do to other inmates almost daily.”
In his second message, he expressed his desire to be transferred to another jail while awaiting his trial on two counts of premeditated first-degree murder.
“I cant call my family or lawyers to notify them if I have been beaten or harassed,” he continued. “I am housed and surrounded in the care of power struck deputies and captains of high authority that even have told me to my face that ‘they don’t like me’ and ‘I pissed them off.’ I am not safe in the hands of these people especially if the highest in command in the jail ‘doesn’t like me.’ I am in fear of my life. My family is in fear of my life. I can not do another day here. Someone please help me get moved to another county jail until my trial. PLEASE!”