Kewon Dontrell White, the gunman convicted of k!lling Dallas rapper popularly known as MO3, has been sentenced to life.
State District Judge Chika Anyiam sentenced 27-year-old Kewon White to life in prison without the possibility of parole after the jury’s verdict was announced late on Friday September 4.
The term was the only option available under Texas law after the Dallas County district attorney’s office chose not to seek a death sentence.
Melvin Noble, also known as MO3, was gunned down Nov. 11, 2020, during a daytime ambush on Interstate 35, near the exit for the Dallas Zoo. The 28-year-old rapper was struck 13 times and pronounced de@d at a hospital a short time later.
Surveillance footage obtained from a dashboard-mounted camera on a nearby Kroger delivery truck captured the moment when Noble stopped his sedan in the middle of the highway, got out, and was chased into oncoming traffic by a gunman wearing a ski mask and carrying an assault-style rifle.
White was charged a few weeks later, after police released screenshots from the delivery truck footage showing the gunman.
Also charged in the case are two men affiliated with White and rapper Yella Beezy: Devin Brown and Jerry Johnson. White was the first of the defendants to be tried. Trial dates for the others have not been set. All three have pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors alleged that another rapper, Yella Beezy, whose real name is Markies Conway, hired White to carry out the murd£r over a long-running feud.
Lead prosecutor Tommy Adams argued the evidence showing Conway paid for the murd£r was overwhelming.
The beef between Noble and Conway began in 2017 with numerous social media exchanges that later led to multiple violent incidents between the two men and their associates, including one in which Conway was seriously injured in a drive-by sho0ting on a North Texas tollway.
Conway viewed White as someone who was “expendable” and “disposable,” Adams said.
The rapper was in Los Angeles when Noble was k!lled and had booked a 27-day stay. He returned to the Dallas area mid-stay after White began complaining about not getting paid and said the same thing that happened to Noble “will happen to other people.”
Conway arrived back in the Dallas area Nov. 22 and withdrew $40,000 from his bank, Adams said. He flew back to Los Angeles shortly after.
FBI Special Agent Taylor Page testified Friday about the extensive evidence he was able to piece together about the movements and communications between the defendants by looking at their cell phone records.
The information showed White drove in a black Camaro to an apartment complex Noble was staying at the night before the murder and remained there for 18 hours, while repeatedly communicating with co-defendant Devin Brown, Page said. When Noble drove away the next day, the Camaro was seen following him. Both men’s cell phones traveled the same direction, the agent said.
On the interstate, the gunman is seen getting out of a black Camaro. Afterward, White’s phone traveled to an area where chop shops that break down cars for parts are located, Page said. Immediately after that, White’s phone shuts down and never comes back on, he said.
Noble’s mother, Nichole Noble, provided a victim impact statement before the sentence was handed down.
“I love you,” Nichole Noble told him. “Maybe that’s what you needed to hear, and you were looking for love with people that don’t love you.”