New bid emerges to interview Drake in XXXTentacion murder case in Florida

FORT LAUDERDALE — Defense lawyers are still trying to pull rapper Drake into the trial of the three men accused of murdering rising hip hop star XXXTentacion, filing a legal notice in court saying they’ve scheduled an out-of-court interview for late February.

It’s not clear yet whether anyone has told Drake.

During opening arguments in the murder case last week, defense lawyer Mauricio Padilla revealed that the victim, Jahseh Onfroy, once put a warning out on social media that if anything were to happen to him, Drake would be the culprit. That was well before Onfroy, who performed as XXXTentacion, was shot to death in a robbery outside Riva Motorsports in Deerfield Beach in 2018.

Investigators and prosecutors have said there is no evidence linking Drake to the shooting, but Padilla said in court that the failure to pursue him as a lead showed a rush to judgment against his client and the other three men who were originally charged with Onfroy’s murder. Three of the men, Dedrick Williams, Michael Boatwright and Trayvon Newsome, are on trial. A fourth, Robert Allen, pleaded guilty and is expected to testify against his co-defendants.

Previous efforts to interview Drake, whose given name is Aubrey Drake Graham, have been unsuccessful. Broward Circuit Judge Michael Usan ruled against a defense motion to force Drake to answer why he keeps spurning efforts to be deposed.

Drake’s attorney, Bradford Cohen, declined to comment.