Prosecutors will not be allowed to use crucial information gathered from the early stages of the murder case against rapper Jamell “YNW Melly” Demons, according to a ruling issued Wednesday by the Fourth District Court of Appeal.

It wasn’t immediately clear which pieces of evidence would be excluded, but the appeals court upheld a ruling issued in 2023 by Broward Circuit Judge John J. Murphy, who presided over the first trial that ended in a hung jury . In that ruling, Murphy decided that investigators were overly broad in their warrants for digital information from Melly’s e-mail and social media accounts.

It wasn’t immediately clear how the ruling would affect the case, but defense lawyers considered the ruling a significant victory.

“They recognized that the police way overstepped

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