A jury was seated in Dallas on Monday in Yella Beezy’s capital murder trial, moving the case out of jury selection and toward opening testimony. The panel of 12 was sworn in by Monday afternoon, putting Markies Conway in position to face the next phase of a case that could send him to prison for life if he is convicted.
That is why the case is drawing attention now: the trial began Monday morning, and testimony was expected to start Tuesday morning. FOX 4 said it would stream the proceedings live once that begins, giving the public a front-row view of a case tied to one of the most closely watched killings in North Texas.
Conway has pleaded not guilty to capital murder and denies hiring Kewon White to kill MO3, whose real name was Melvin Noble. Prosecutors say White fatally shot Noble in an ambush attack on Interstate 35 in Dallas and that Conway paid him for the hit. In September, jurors found White guilty of capital murder for Noble’s death, and he was sentenced to life in prison.
The courtroom had already been alerted to the risk of pretrial exposure. Judge Chika Anyiam asked the pool of 75 potential jurors to speak up if they had seen anything on the news or social media that might make them biased, and a few people raised their hands when she asked whether anyone had formed an opinion because of the publicity. That matters because both sides will be looking for a panel that can decide whether the evidence shows Conway paid for the killing, or whether the defense can keep the case from being linked in jurors’ minds to White’s earlier conviction.
How long the trial runs may depend on how much evidence each side chooses to put on and how quickly the jurors move through it. The court has said it could last two to three weeks, but the path from a seated jury to a verdict is now set. What happens next is simple enough: the first witnesses are expected Tuesday morning, and the case that has sat in the shadow of publicity is finally heading into proof.
