Key Vhani Testifies She Feared Death Before Fatal Shooting

Key Vhani testified that she feared for her life before fatally shooting her manager’s friend, as she asked Judge Lody Jean to dismiss her second-degree murder charge under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law.

“I thought I was going to die. I thought I was going to die,” she testified November 5, according to the Miami Herald.

The Miami rapper, whose legal name is Kevhani Camilla Hicks, said Demitrie Harris pinned her down. She testified that she fired after seeing him pull something black from his pocket. Surveillance footage showed Harris running away as she advanced and continued shooting.

Key Vhani said shock and pain explained why she had not mentioned the pocket movement to detectives. After the shooting, her manager, Nathan Smith, struck her with his car. She suffered three fractured ribs.

The shooting followed a night spent promoting her music in Miami in October 2023. Harris was Smith’s friend; she had not known him before that evening.

“I believed this guy could kill me,” she testified. She said she had never fired her gun before the shooting.

The immunity fight was already underway in September, when the court reviewed surveillance video and competing accounts of the confrontation. Her defense argued that she feared another attack after getting away from the men.

Prosecutors argued that she kept firing as Harris tried to escape. Her own testimony now gave Judge Jean her account of why she reached for the weapon.

Florida law allows deadly force when a person reasonably believes it is necessary to prevent imminent death, great bodily harm or a forcible felony. The law removes the duty to retreat for a person who meets its requirements, including being somewhere they have a right to be and not engaging in criminal activity.

The immunity provision gives the pretrial hearing direct consequences for whether a prosecution can proceed. Once a defendant raises a prima facie self-defense immunity claim at that hearing, the party opposing immunity must overcome it with clear and convincing evidence.

She remained on GPS-monitored house arrest with a 9 P.M. curfew. Lawyers were set to return for arguments on November 10.