Kodak Black appears before judge after drug trafficking arrest in Florida

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Good morning, Judge. How are you? Doing well. Next case is uh State of Florida versus Bill Capri, 2026 CF 6084.

[00:00:09]David Bigney on behalf of Bill Capri.

[00:00:11]Bradford Cohen on behalf of Bill Capri, Judge.

[00:00:13]All right. Good afternoon, sir. If you can just tell me your name and your date of birth.

[00:00:16]Capri, sir.

[00:00:18]All right. Date of birth?

[00:00:19]June 11th, 1997. All right. Thank you.

[00:00:22]All right, Mr. Capri. You are here for your initial appearance. You were arrested pursuant to an arrest warrant, so probable cause was previously determined by Judge Murphy. Uh we are here for purposes of today for determining your bond and as well as conditions of bond. Uh before we do that, is there anything um that the defense wishes to add? I do, Judge. I just want to point out a couple things with the arrest and the uh the affidavit for arrest. I know the PC is hard to be found. Yes, sir. Generally speaking, um I always like to make the court aware of the strength or weakness of the case because I think that goes towards the bond. In this case, Judge, this was uh this happened in November. Oh, before I get to that, we also self-surrendered uh for the court's notification. We self-surrendered. He was in California.

[00:01:05]I had him fly back specifically for this case. I was notified by the US Marshal Service um and given the opportunity to surrender him. US Marshal Service was beyond professional in this case, just for the record. Um but if you read the uh the affidavit that is attached to the warrant, Judge, um essentially what happened here was there was two vehicles. Yes, sir.

[00:01:28]Neither of the vehicles are registered to Mr. Capri personally. An officer approaches the vehicles. One vehicle he says smells like marijuana. He searches that vehicle, finds something in that vehicle that is unrelated to Mr. Capri.

[00:01:40]The second vehicle and he doesn't even see Mr. Capri on the scene at this point. The second vehicle they then inspect. There's one person in that vehicle. There's two bags next to that person, both in the passenger side of the vehicle. One bag has um drugs in it and some other items. The other bag has uh what he initially says, and he doesn't put this in his affidavit, he initially says that he tests it and it tests as 27 g of cocaine, which is just under the trafficking amount of 28 g. When he then sends it in, allegedly, it becomes MDMA.

[00:02:15]Um so, I also have his original report that says when he originally tested it, it tested as cocaine.

[00:02:21]Inside that bag, there's some items that he says belong to Mr. Capri, a an identification and some paperwork.

[00:02:28]He then sends things off to get printed.

[00:02:32]None of the things in that bag come back to Mr. Capri as his fingerprints. I think there were several latent prints taken off. None of them match Mr. Capri.

[00:02:40]At that point, then Mr. Capri approaches the officer um and is now on the scene, was not in the vehicle, and um doesn't make any admission that the bag is his or anything like that. The officer then goes one step further and goes on Mr. Capri's Instagram and on one picture in his Instagram, there's a picture of him standing next to a bag that looks like the bag that was in the car.

[00:03:04]Now, I know if PC was already found, uh so I'm not going to argue PC, but it's really screaming at me, but I won't argue it. But I I mean, the case law on this is so very clear, and I used two very very I think esteemed cases.

[00:03:21]Um one of them is Edmond v. State, and the other one is McCray v. State, and it I'll just give you a very brief on it.

[00:03:28]Right. So, let me ask you this before we get into the cases. One, has a copy been given to the state?

[00:03:32]>> I'll give her a copy. I'm sorry. Cuz certainly last thing we want to do is have a hearing by ambush.

[00:03:37]And and I I know my heart but I use these in in a lot of the construction cases, construction preservation. So, the Edmond case is kind of an amazing case. The police raid a house on a warrant. The guy's in hiding in the closet with wet cocaine next to him in a hole that his head is within 1 ft of the hole. On the stove is cooking cocaine.

[00:04:00]Next to the stove is his ID and some paperwork. In a bedroom in the house is more paperwork that belongs to him. The court found that's still not enough for constructive possession. It's kind of an amazing case and I'll give you the exact site for it, but it's Edmund v. State and the state has a copy of it. The other one is McCray. In McCray, they're pulling a guy over. They pull him over, he jumps out of the car and makes a run for it. As he's running, the officer sees that he's playing with his waistband and makes a throwing motion.

[00:04:31]He puts him down on the ground, arrests him, and tells the other cop, "Hey, go back and see what he threw." They find a baggie of cocaine, no fingerprints on it. They print it, no fingerprints on it, and they court says, "That's not enough for constructive possession."

[00:04:45]Those cases are so much closer to constructive possession than this case.

[00:04:50]And I would just ask the court in considering a bond to look at the case, to look at the um the affidavit that's with the case.

[00:04:57]And I understand that the the typical bond on this is $50,000.

[00:05:02]I'm asking for a $10,000 bond. Um I I I I on my way here on the train, I was typing up a motion to dismiss. It's just there there is not enough here. I got All right, and I'll and I'll stop you there. I mean, the obviously you know that the motion to dismiss is for another day. We're here for so for the sole purpose of uh determining bond and conditions of bond. Your client And I appreciate judge and I don't know if I have >> I've got the sites for you, Your Honor.

[00:05:27]Edmund versus State is 963 Southern 2nd 344. It's 2000 uh a 2007 case 4th DCA and the McCray versus is another 4th DCA case out of 2006 and I do not have that site.

[00:05:43]Give him the case over there. Um again, not arguing PC, it's been found. Yes, sir. We believe that the importance of this information is uh the strength of the case is something for the court to consider. Additionally, again, as Mr. Cohen had said, this was a self-surrender case. This is not somebody who is a flight risk. Uh and the strength of the case, uh using the word strength very, very loosely, uh would ask that the court consider a low bond, $10,000.

[00:06:10]And he's ever failed to appear as long as I've represented him.

[00:06:13]As long as you've represented him, there is >> I've represented him since he was like, I don't know, 17. Yeah, there might be one really far back in the past. There's one from 2016. Uh before I determine conditions of bond and bond amount, State, is there anything that you all wish to add?

[00:06:28]No, Your Honor. As both attorneys said, they're not arguing PC, and PC has already been found. Uh the schedule for trafficking is $50,000.

[00:06:39]Um PC has been found for a trafficking, so the State would ask that you give a bond of $50,000. State would actually ask that you increase the bond as the defendant is a professional rapper. As the counsels has indicated, he flew in from California. He is also um when you do a search, listed as a Haitian-American.

[00:07:05]Um he does not have any ties to Orlando.

[00:07:08]He's from Pompano Beach, but again, he flew in from California. So, State would not only ask that you have the bond at 50,000, um in light of his occupation and lack of ties to Orlando, that it actually be increased, and one of the conditions be that he surrender his passport.

[00:07:33]If I can just address that very quickly, Judge. Uh he is he is a a proud Haitian-American, but he is an American.

[00:07:40]He has a US passport. Uh he doesn't have any plans on leaving the country.

[00:07:45]I I wouldn't I mean we faced cases that are 10 times this case and I've won by the way. But we'll put that in the another bucket. But the fact that he's a rapper doesn't give you a legal purpose to raise the bond. So I would still ask for a $10,000 bond judge. All right.

[00:08:02]Well, I appreciate all the argument.

[00:08:04]Again, Mr. Capri you're charged with trafficking in methamphetamine or MDMA more than 10 grams less than 200 grams.

[00:08:10]That is a first-degree felony. Again, you are entitled to a bond. So I am going to give you a bond. I have considered the strength of the case as well as everything that was set forth in the arrest affidavit. I understand the arguments presented by your counsel. I think one of the things that was left out was well, you weren't necessarily claiming ownership of the bag.

[00:08:31]You were requesting that the funds within the bag be turned over to you. So there at least is some tie seems like to the court to that bag. Nonetheless, I think in terms of bond, I am going to slightly increase the bond. I think based upon your not the fact that you're a rapper.

[00:08:46]I think that has no binding, but the other factors that the court considered is your prior criminal history including 12 prior felony convictions, two misdemeanor convictions, one failure to appear that was quite some time ago. So I'm not giving a a ton of weight to the failure to appear, but I think an appropriate bond in this case would be $75,000. So that's going to be what the court sets the bond at. As conditions of your bond, I am going to order that you not return to the scene of the offense which is 910 Fairvilla Road, Orlando, Florida which is the Children's Safety Village. Additionally, I am going to order that you not have any contact with any of the co-defendants in your case.

[00:09:21]So specifically Mr. Avon Joseph and Mr. James Twitty. Additionally, you are not to possess or consume any drugs or controlled substances without a valid prescription.

[00:09:30]Additionally, this should go without saying because you are already a felon, but you're not to possess any weapons or firearms. Additionally, I am going to order that you not have contact with any of the other witnesses in the case. So, specifically, Giscard Cantave, Arquilla McDougald, Deion Rogers, and Mazurek San Melis. Aside from that, I believe those are the all the conditions that I think would be appropriate in this particular case. Obviously, if you all are seeking to have the bond um modified or reduced, you can file the appropriate motion with the assigned judge, and I'm sure they'll get you in the docket to address that for you.

[00:10:02]>> Good. The only thing is one of those individuals is his brother.

[00:10:05]So, I don't know how you don't have contact with your brother because >> Which one? Which one?

[00:10:10]Again, you only have one prior failure to appear dating over 10 years ago. So, Mr. Cohen. Yeah, yes, sir. Just this one thing. One of those individuals is his brother. So, I don't know how you don't And then the other ones, I think there there's some cousins involved in there.

[00:10:23]One of them is his manager. One of them is his road guy. So, which one's the co-defendant? It it's not a co-defendant. You said no no contact with the witnesses. Right, but before that, um I said Evan Joseph and James Tweedy. I believe Yeah, I don't mind about that. That that that's fine. But there's there's the other individuals that had nothing to do with this case that were just on the scene. One of them is his brother, that Mazurek.

[00:10:48]Okay. And then I believe one of them is his I think two are security and one is Yeah, two are his security. All right, which two? Um which two are his Cantave and Deion.

[00:11:04]All right, so I will permit you to have contact with your with your team, so your security and uh So, that's Cantave, Rogers, and San Melis. You can have contact with them.

[00:11:14]So, I'll I'll strike that condition.

[00:11:16]Perfect. Thank you, counselor. My best best of luck to you, sir. You as well.

[00:11:19]Thank you.

[00:11:23]75.

[00:11:25]Oh, yeah.