A guy who testified against three former pals who murdered rising rap singer XXXTentacion during a robbery five years ago will be imprisoned for the next two years, a judge ruled on May 17.
Robert Allen was sentenced to seven years in prison by Circuit Judge Michael Usan, with credit for the five years he has already served in the Broward County jail. He will thereafter be on probation for 20 years. He may have gotten life in prison.
“I do believe you are not the same person who I arraigned five years ago,” Usan said. “I truly believe you are sorry for what you’ve done, rather than sorry for yourself.”
Allen, 27, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last year and testified against Michael Boatwright, 27, Dedrick Williams, 27, and Trayvon Newsome, 25 earlier this year. In March, they were found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Man who accepted a plea bargain in the case of rapper XXXTentacion
“Please forgive me, I’m so sorry,” Allen apologized to the judge. “Today, I begged the court not to send me to state prison because that would be a death sentence.”
Allen and his attorney, Jim Lewis, argued that as a former gang member who “snitched” on other gang members, other convicts in the same gang would most certainly kill him.
“There’s nothing to be happy about in this kind of case, you know he did the right thing and the court did the right thing, give him the opportunity to give him a life,” Lewis contended.
During the month-long trial, prosecutors used security video shot inside and outside Riva Motorsports in suburban Fort Lauderdale to connect Allen, Boatwright, Williams, and Newsome to the June 18, 2018, shooting. They grabbed $50,000 and posted smartphone videos of themselves flaunting fistfuls of $100 bills hours after the shooting.
XXXTentacion, born Jahseh Onfroy, had just left Riva Motorsports with a companion when an SUV drove in front of him, blocking his BMW.
Two masked shooters emerged from the car and confronted the 20-year-old singer at the driver’s window, with one shooting him repeatedly. They then snatched a Louis Vuitton bag holding the cash that XXXTentacion had just withdrawn from the bank, jumped back into the SUV, and drove away.
Boatwright was recognized as the primary shooter, with Newsome as the second gunman. Williams was the group’s commander and the SUV’s driver.
Allen testified that the men planned to commit robberies that day and went to a motorcycle store to get Williams a mask. They saw the rapper there and decided to make him their target. Allen and Williams walked inside to make sure it was him. They then returned to the leased SUV, waited for XXXTentacion to emerge, and attacked him.
