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Yella Beezy has been sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted of capital murder in connection with the death of his alleged rival, MO3.
The Dallas native, born Markies Conway, learned his fate on Wednesday, November 11, which was also the sixth anniversary of the Texas rapper's horrific death. A jury found Conway guilty of ordering Kewon White to gun down Mo3 on a busy Texas highway in 2020 and giving him a hefty paycheck after the fact. Immediately after the jury affirmed its verdict, Judge Chika Anyiam sentenced Conway to serve life in prison without parole.
Conway, who first made an impact in the music industry with his breakthrough hit "That's On Me," was arrested and charged with capital murder last year. Prosecutors argued that the 35-year-old artist wanted to get even with Mo3, born Melvin Noble, amid their ongoing feud that dates back to 2018. During his bond hearing, prosecutor Tommy Adams played surveillance video taken from an 18-wheeler truck showing White shooting and chasing after Noble in the middle of I-35. He also cited a $40,000 withdrawal the rapper made from his bank account several days after his foe was killed.
White was charged with murder a month after the shooting and was sentenced to life in prison back in September. At the time Conway was arrested, White was already serving a nine-year prison sentence for firearms charges related to the shooting. Conway was originally held on a $2 million bond, but it was reduced to $750,000. He was out on bail when his trial began in October.
During the trial, prosecutors established Conway's motive by using testimony from people in both rappers' inner circles and evidence including his alleged payment to White. His longtime friend Theodore Thomas, who raps under the name "Jose Bodega," testified to a grand jury that Conway paid White to murder Mo3, but later claimed he "made it up" while he was on the witness stand at the trial. Conway's attorneys tried to argue that the allegations were based on speculation rather than concrete evidence, but the jury didn't agree.
In their closing arguments, prosecutors drove their point home by playing a clip from Conway's 2019 interview. After saying he wouldn't forgive anyone who shoots at him, he says, "I'mma get my lick back."
Conway was booked into the North Tower Jail in Texas and is awaiting his transfer to a state prison.