Courts & Lawsuits

Yella Beezy Trial Turns As Star Witness Says He Made It Up

Published November 6, 2026Updated November 7, 20262 min read

The capital murder trial of Dallas rapper Yella Beezy took a dramatic turn this week, and the moment came from the prosecution's own witness list. Theodore Thomas, a rapper known as Jose Bodega and a childhood friend of the man on trial, testified under immunity on Monday, November 2, that he made up the statements he once gave a grand jury tying Yella Beezy to the killing of fellow Dallas rapper Mo3.

Yella Beezy, whose legal name is Markies Conway, has pleaded not guilty to capital murder. Prosecutors allege he paid gunman Kewon White 40,000 dollars to kill Mo3, whose legal name was Melvin Noble, in a shooting on Interstate 35E in Dallas on November 11, 2020. White was convicted of capital murder in September 2026 and sentenced to life in prison. Conway has denied arranging the killing from the start, and nothing in this trial has been decided. He is presumed innocent unless a jury finds otherwise.

Thomas was supposed to be a pillar of the state case. He had told a Dallas County grand jury in February 2025 that Conway and others wanted Mo3 dead. Last week, called to the stand, he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination again and again. On Monday he returned with immunity and reversed himself in front of the jury. Asked about the feud story at the heart of his earlier account, he told the court he made it up, and that his earlier claims were a lie.

Judge Chika Anyiam then instructed jurors on what the reversal means. They may not treat his earlier statements as proof that the facts in them are true. They may weigh the two versions only in deciding whether to believe what he says now. Prosecutors, suddenly arguing against their own witness, reminded the court that he had stood by the original account for more than 18 months.

The state still has more than testimony. Prosecutors have presented FBI cell tower mapping they say places phones together in Houston, records of a large cash withdrawal, and testimony from inmate Cedric Bradley, who claims White confessed details of the freeway shooting while locked up. The defense answers with the recantation itself and with a simple point it returns to often: there are no direct calls between Conway and White.

The trial resumed Friday, November 6, with no verdict in sight, and a third man charged in the case, Devin Brown, faces a separate trial later this month. Whatever happens next, the day a star witness told the jury he invented his story is now the center of this case, and both sides know it.