It's becoming more common for prosecutors to use rappers' lyrics against them at trial. We've read about people like Tay-K and Mayhem Mal finding themselves on the wrong side of the law, only for the lyrics to their songs to e used as evidence against them. Indianapolis rapper T Ward, too, can add his name to that list after he was reportedly convicted of a triple homicide with the help of his own rhymes.
According to prosecutors, it was Summer 2017 when T Ward, real name Troy Ward, planned on robbing a 19-year-old drug dealer named Justin Crowler. When Crowler answered his door one evening, it's said that Ward and two of his accomplices stormed inside while shooting at random. Crowler, along with his two roommates 25-year-old Dominique Miller and 25-year-old Jordan Wright, were murdered. Ward and his cohorts reportedly took Crowler's safe and fled the scene.
Ward was already a suspect in the killings, but when police came across his SoundCloud track "I'm Different," they believed he was rapping about the incident. "I creep up to the door silently and slow / I opened up that (expletive) and now we clashing poles / Two shots to the body two shots to the dome / Finesse the (expletive) stash and then I took it home," he reportedly rapped.
However, Ward's attorney claimed that it was all art, not fact. "There are a lot of songs that have similar content,” Charles White told IndyStar. “Are all of these artists talking about events that they were witnesses or part of, or are they creating art based on society?” Although the rap lyrics played a role in the case against Ward, it wasn't significant, according to prosecutors. His co-defendants testified against him and cell phone evidence showed that all three men were at the crime scene. According to VladTV, Ward was found guilty and sentenced to 180 years in prison.
