Kewon White enters a Dallas County courtroom on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. White is charged with capital murder in the November 2020 shooting death of rapper MO3. Prosecutors allege Markies Conway, another Dallas area rapper known as Yella Beezy, hired White to kill MO3, whose real name was Melvin Noble.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
Tamatha Hopkins pulled up beside a stopped black Camaro on Interstate 35 in November 2020, assuming the loud popping noises signaled a wreck or blown-out tire.
Hopkins lowered her passenger-side window and asked the man getting out of the car if he was OK. He told her to leave, she said, as he pointed an assault-style rifle at her and pulled a ski mask over his face.
Hopkins was among the first witnesses called to testify Wednesday in the capital murder trial for Kewon White, who is charged in the shooting death of Dallas rapper MO3 during a highway ambush.
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Prosecutors have alleged White was hired to kill MO3 by Markies Conway, another Dallas-area rapper known as Yella Beezy.
MO3, whose real name was Melvin Noble, had initiated a public feud with Conway years before that prosecutors say fueled multiple shootings and violent incidents involving the two rappers and their associates.
Defense attorney Toby Shook, left, speaks to his client rapper Yella Beezy during a July 16, 2026 hearing in Beezy’s capital murder case at the Frank Crowley Courthouse in Dallas. Beezy, whose real name is Markies Conway, is accused of hiring a hitman to kill fellow North Texas rapper Melvin Noble, known as MO3.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
The moments leading up to Noble’s slaying were captured by a dash-mounted camera in a nearby Kroger delivery truck. The footage was played in court Wednesday.
Noble is seen stopping his gold sedan in the middle of the highway, getting out the driver’s side then trying to retrieve something from the passenger side before running away.
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Next, the gunman Hopkins encountered is seen chasing after Noble. The shooting happened off camera. The gunman is seen running back to his car afterward. Noble, 28, was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“There was a hitman out on the highway and that hitman was the defendant, Kewon White,” Assistant District Attorney Tommy Adams told jurors in his opening statement. “It was noon. Broad daylight. Cars all over the highway.”
Hopkins said she didn’t see enough of the gunman’s face to be able to identify him.
Among the evidence prosecutors will use to tie White to the shooting are cell phone records and financial documents, Adams said.
Defense attorney Myra McIntosh told jurors that the prosecution’s evidence is “riddled with speculation, assumptions and implausible conclusions.”
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Related: A timeline of the MO3 murder-for-hire case
White, then 21, was arrested a few weeks later, after investigators released screenshots from video footage showing a gunman armed with a high-capacity rifle chasing Noble. Conway, 34, wasn’t charged until last year, when he was indicted by a grand jury. Two of Conway’s associates have been charged as co-conspirators. All three have pleaded not guilty.
In other testimony Wednesday, a neurosurgeon testified he was in his car on the interstate when he heard shots and a bullet pierced his windshield. Next, he saw a gunman running toward him while chasing another man.
“He turned and actually looked at me through the windshield,” Dr. Randall Graham said. “I really thought that was going to be the end of my life.”
Graham said he got out of his vehicle after the gunman fled and went to assist Noble, who had fallen next to Graham’s car. He started administering CPR, he said, but it was obvious his wounds were likely fatal.
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Prosecutor Tommy Adams delivers his opening statement Wednesday, Aug. 26 2026 during the capital murder trial for Kewon White, who is accused of shooting rapper MO3 during a November 2020 ambush on Interstate 35. Prosecutors allege fellow rapper Yella Beezy, also known as Markies Conway, hired White to kill MO3.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
Graham said he also didn’t see enough of the gunman’s face to be able to identify him.
The medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Noble said the rapper was shot multiple times, with four to five of the shots being lethal.
Noble’s mother, Nichole Noble, told jurors about the close relationship her oldest son had with her and the rest of their family. She said Noble grew up singing at church, where she served as choir director. He started writing rap lyrics when he was around 7 or 8, she said.
Nichole Noble said family members called Noble “Bubba,” not MO3.
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“He was a family man,” she said. “When he was with us he wasn’t MO3 the rapper.”
White’s trial is expected to last two weeks. The trials for the other defendants haven’t been scheduled.
Last month, State District Judge Chika Anyiam ruled that some of the violent rap lyrics that prosecutors want to present at Conway’s trial will be allowed but barred most of them. Conway’s lawyers sought to keep the evidence out of court, arguing it could be misinterpreted by jurors as a confession.