A Broward judge removed the lead prosecutor from the Jamell “YNW Melly” Demons double murder retrial Thursday, leaving the State Attorney’s Office with just a few days to replace her before jury selection must begin.

Assistant State Attorney Kristine Bradley has been listed as a witness for the defense and could be called to challenge the credibility of one of Demons’ chief accusers in the shooting deaths of fellow rappers Anthony “YNW Sakchaser” Williams and Christopher “YNW Juvy” Thomas.

Circuit Judge John J. Murphy said Bradley could not be allowed to serve as lead prosecutor if there were even a chance she could be called as a witness for the defense.

In the same ruling, Murphy said elected State Attorney Harold Pryor and two key deputies cannot be compelled to testify for defense efforts to have their office removed from the case entirely, a decision that effectively dashes defense hopes that the case will be dismissed entirely. The defense “failed to show” that Pryor and his deputies engaged in a “cover-up” that should lead to their disqualification, Murphy said. All evidence indicates they told their prosecutors to be truthful to the court and to the defense, he said.

Demons’ first trial ended July 22 with a hung jury. By law, prosecutors have until the end of next week to start jury selection in the retrial.

In removing Bradley from the case, Murphy stopped short of saying her integrity had been compromised. But she was at the heart of multiple conflicting statements about what happened last October when Miramar Police Detective Mark Moretti, lead detective in the Demons case, executed a search warrant and seized a cell phone from the defendant’s mother during a deposition in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

Michelle Boutros, a prosecutor who was with Moretti at the time, said Moretti asked a Broward Sheriff’s Deputy, Adam Gorell, to say he was in the room when the phone was taken because Moretti was outside his jurisdiction and had no right to take the phone.

The exact exchange between Moretti and Gorell was not recorded, and in three disclosures to the defense, the Broward State Attorney’s Office gave three different accounts. Bradley gave a fourth account on the stand last Friday at a pretrial hearing.

Defense lawyers say Moretti’s reliability as a witness is at stake and that Boutros and Bradley could be called as witnesses to prove his willingness to lie and to encourage a fellow law enforcement officer to commit perjury.

Moretti’s official report on the execution of the warrant made no mention of Gorell’s presence or absence. Although there is no single consistent account of the exchange between Moretti and Gorell, prosecutors contend it was intended as a joke.

Defense lawyers Jamie Benjamin and Daniel Aaronson said Demons’ defense team does not intend to waive his right to a speedy retrial. Both sides are due back in court Friday for a scheduling conference.

Rafael Olmeda can be reached at or 954-356-4457.