Drake Reportedly No Longer Has To Give Deposition In XXXTentacion Murder Trial
Drake reportedly no longer has to worry about sitting for a deposition for the XXXTentacion murder trial. That’s according to gossip site TMZ, who reported that Judge Michael A. Usan signed off on Drake’s legal team’s motion to avoid the deposition. This voids the court’s previous order to have him sit down later this month.
Drake’s lawyers filed a motion on Sunday (Feb. 12) to request for the rapper to not sit for the deposition. “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, per Billboard. “To mandate that he appear for deposition for something that he very clearly has no relevant knowledge of is unreasonable.”
Padilla represents suspect Dedrick Williams, one of the four men prosecutors charged for killing X during a robbery in Florida in 2018. Along with Williams, Trayvon Newsome, Michael Boatwright, and Robert Allen were also charged. Padilla argued that he wanted Drake for questioning was due to past beef between him and X.
In 2017, X (born Jahseh Onfroy) believed that Drizzy ripped off his flow on his breakout track “Look at Me” on Drake’s “KMT.” A year later, XXX posted a cryptic message on Instagram. His Instagram Story read, “If anyone tries to kill me it was @champagnepapi,” tagging Drake’s Instagram handle. However, after the post was made, XXXTentacion claimed his Instagram account had been hacked. He was killed four months after the post in Deerfield Beach, Fla.
Drake was one of several celebrities mentioned in Padilla’s back in December. That list also included Quavo, Offset, Tekashi 6ix9ine, Joe Budden, and the late TakeOff. Drake’s lawyers added that Padilla is using the celebrity’s names to bring 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.
It has not been made public if the other potential celebrity witnesses have been requested to sit for a deposition.