JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The video attached to this story is from a previous, related report.
Jacksonville rapper Spinabenz, whose real name is Noah Williams, goes to trial Monday. Jury selection begins at 10 a.m., with only 49 jurors to choose from.
Williams, a documented affiliate of a violent street gang, is facing charges of possession of a firearm by a gang-related felon.
In that case, prosecutors charged him under a state law that allows for enhanced penalties for gang members. Williams already faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the first-degree felony, but the gang enhancement could potentially yield a life sentence.
After police say he removed his ankle monitor while on house arrest, he also now faces charges of tampering with a monitoring device. Williams was off the grid for 52 minutes but returned to his home to have the monitor replaced, his arrest warrant shows.
Williams career is in part predicated on his gang ties -- his most popular feature is on the viral song "Who I Smoke," which satirizes Jacksonville murder victims.
Williams original felony was for witness tampering. He was sentenced to 8 months in 2017 after he was convicted of threatening a woman who was sexually assaulted by his brother, Reginald Williams (stage name Whoppa Wit Da Choppa, who is also featured on "Who I Smoke"). Documents show that he attempted to get the woman to recant her testimony, driving around the block outside her home and threatening to harm her family. Police wrote in his arrest report that due to his gang ties, he had the means to carry out his threats.
Prosecutors had hoped to show jurors his rap videos and his social media presence as evidence in the case, saying they provide essential context for why he was carrying a gun the day of his arrest. Williams’ attorney objected, saying the information would be unfairly prejudicial in “a simple possession case" and asked Circuit Judge Jeb Branham to “bifurcate” the possession charge from the gang enhancement -- meaning the two issues will be split into two different trials.
Branham granted the request, saying the gang related testimony would be “unduly prejudicial” for a jury to hear, and would outweigh its evidentiary value in the case. This means the case will be split into two different phases.
“Because of the danger of unfair prejudice posed by allowing the State to introduce all of its gang-related enhancement evidence during the guilt phase, the Court will order the trial bifurcated into a guilt phase and a penalty enhancement phase," Branham wrote.