Phone Records Take Center Stage After Witness Recants in Yella Beezy Murder Trial

Rapper Yella Beezy appears in a 2025 interview with BOSS TALK 101. The Dallas rapper, whose legal name is Markies Conway, is standing trial on a capital murder charge in connection with the 2020 killing of fellow rapper MO3. (Photo: BOSS TALK 101/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0)

The prosecution's case against Yella Beezy has moved from a witness who says he lied to cellphone records that may be just as important for what they don't show.

An FBI agent testified Tuesday that phones linked to several people implicated in the 2020 killing of Dallas rapper MO3 traveled through overlapping areas and showed significant communication around the time of the shooting.

But the same records revealed no direct cellphone contact between Yella Beezy and two other defendants in the case.

Yella Beezy, whose legal name is Markies Conway, has pleaded not guilty to capital murder. Prosecutors accuse him of arranging the killing of MO3, born Melvin Noble, who was chased down and fatally shot on Interstate 35 in Dallas on Nov. 11, 2020.

FBI Special Agent Taylor Page spent much of Tuesday walking jurors through historical cellphone records involving Conway, convicted gunman Kewon White and other people connected to the investigation.

Page testified that phones associated with Conway and White traveled through the same general areas during a trip to Houston over Halloween weekend in 2020, less than two weeks before MO3 was killed.

He acknowledged, however, that cellphone-tower information cannot prove who was carrying a particular phone or whether two devices were inside the same vehicle.

The agent also described a surge in communications between White and another defendant, Devin Brown, around the time of the killing.

According to Page's analysis, White's phone connected to towers serving the area of the shooting before the device moved away. Communications between White and Brown increased sharply around the attack.

Prosecutors also presented evidence concerning Conway's movements after the killing.

Page testified that Conway returned to Dallas from Los Angeles on Nov. 20 and withdrew $40,000 from a Chase Bank branch in Frisco. Phone records placed another man connected to the case, Jerry Johnson, in the Frisco area shortly afterward.

Prosecutors have alleged that money was paid to arrange MO3's murder, but the withdrawal alone does not establish that the cash reached White or was connected to the shooting.

Under cross-examination, defense attorney Toby Shook challenged the accuracy and completeness of the cellphone analysis.

Page acknowledged that the records did not show direct communications between Conway and either White or Brown. He also agreed that cell-tower information identifies general coverage areas rather than a person's exact location.

The defense pointed to gaps in the timeline, including an unanalyzed three-hour period on the afternoon of the killing.

The testimony followed another significant development Monday, when Conway's longtime friend Theodore Thomas, a rapper known as Jose Bodega, disavowed allegations he previously made to a grand jury.

Thomas said he invented statements about a feud involving Conway and MO3 and an alleged conversation about paying for the killing.

He testified that pressure from federal authorities facing him with serious criminal charges led him to provide false information.

Prosecutors challenged that explanation, suggesting that Thomas changed his account because of his longstanding loyalty to Conway.

Judge Chika Anyiam instructed jurors that Thomas' earlier statements could be considered when evaluating his credibility, but not as evidence that the allegations were true or that Conway was guilty.

White was convicted of capital murder in September and sentenced to life in prison. Conway is being tried separately.

Jurors were dismissed early Tuesday to allow them to vote in the election.

The trial is continuing, with prosecutors attempting to establish how the alleged killing was arranged and the defense challenging whether the evidence connects Conway to that arrangement.