Drake‘s lawyers are doing everything they can to fight back against efforts to force the 6 God to sit through a deposition over XXXTENTACION‘s murder.
On Sunday (February 12), Drizzy’s lawyers filed a new motion that stated there is no evidence connecting the rapper to X’s 2018 shooting death. The motion arrived days after a Florida judge ordered the Toronto hitmaker to appear for a deposition by February 24.
According to the new motion, Drake’s lawyers believe defense attorneys are only trying to “add more layers of celebrity and notoriety” to the case.
“It is both unreasonable and oppressive to subpoena an out of state party who has not been mentioned in any reports, any investigation, or referenced to have any involvement in this matter,” Drake’s attorney Bradford M. Cohen wrote in the filing. “To mandate that he appear for deposition for something that he very clearly has no relevant knowledge of is unreasonable.”
Prosecutors charged four Florida men — Dedrick Williams, Trayvon Newsome, Michael Boatwright and Robert Allen – for killing X during a robbery in Florida. The prosecution in X’s murder trial never brought up Drake’s name, but defense attorney Mauricio Padilla — who represents Williams in the case — listed the OVO bossman on a celebrity witness list in December.
During opening arguments last week, Padilla suggested that law enforcement had not thoroughly investigated a possible connection between Drake and X’s murder, especially when the two were allegedly beefing before the shooting. He also used a 2018 since-deleted social media post where X wrote: “If anyone tries to kill me it was @champagnepapi,” referencing Drake’s Instagram name as added speculation.
Padilla attempted to get Drake to sit for a deposition in January but claimed he didn’t show up, which led to a judge forcing one in February. If he misses it, Drake will risk being held in contempt of court.
The 6 God’s lawyers won’t be giving into any of the demands as they claimed the subpoena was not properly served. The December witness list — which includes Quavo, Offset, Tekashi 6ix9ine, Joe Budden and the late TakeOff — is also cited as evidence that the defense team is trying to drag in big names to add to notoriety to the case.
“It would appear, based on the names mentioned on the witness list filed by defendant’s counsel, that the intent to subpoena [Drake] is less for the purpose of discovering relevant evidence and testimony, but instead add more layers of celebrity and notoriety to a tragic and unfortunate event,” Drake’s lawyers added in their motion.
This news bit arrived just days after Robert Allen — one of the accused killers — shut down any speculation that Drake was involved in the 2018 death and denied having any contact with the Toronto superstar.
Allen, who agreed to testify against his co-defendants after pleading guilty to lesser charges in 2022, told the court last week that not only had he never met Drake, but that he did not know who X was at the time of his death.
His testimony was delivered as a series of “yes” and “no” answers while he was being cross-examined by Padilla.
[via]
