Prosecutors scramble after Baltimore rapper’s name leaked as cooperator in murder-for-hire case

City prosecutors are seeking emergency court action after documents revealing the identity of a critical witness in a high-profile trial of two accused hit men surfaced on the internet and went viral.

Under a judge’s order, no one outside the case was supposed to know — or at least be able to prove on paper — that Keith Ambush, a once-rising local rapper also known as YNE Sosa, was cooperating before he was expected to testify in the trial of Keith Brian Russell and Cornell Moore.

This week, however, documents outlining Ambush’s discussions with federal authorities in an investigation dubbed “Fallen Angel” appeared in a YouTube video that has amassed more than 50,000 views and generated scores of social media posts, with some denouncing him as a snitch.

Fearing witness intimidation, city prosecutors quickly moved for an emergency hearing to question defense attorneys about how the information might have been disclosed. Judge Robert Taylor Jr. agreed to a hearing on the issue scheduled for Friday morning.

“The state has not made physical copies of the protected material,” Assistant State’s Attorney Samantha Mildenberg wrote in a motion that became public Thursday. “The only copies of the protected material were shared digitally with counsel of defendant Moore and co-defendant Russell.”

The YouTube video, Mildenberg wrote, “proves that paper copies of the protected reports were made and disseminated — a clear violation of the protective order agreed to by counsel and ordered by the court.”

The defense attorneys are Brandon Taylor and Natalie Finegar. Finegar denied having provided documents to her client or anyone else.

“I have prepared a series of materials that I believe will demonstrate I was in full compliance with the court’s protective order,” Finegar said.

Taylor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Even as violence in Baltimore has dropped to record lows, the leaked documents show the lingering challenge authorities face with potential witness intimidation.

Moore and Russell, both 40, are scheduled to go on trial this fall, accused by federal agents of a murder-for-hire plot connected to as many as 19 shootings and homicides between 2020 and 2022. Russell has already been convicted at trial for a related homicide in Baltimore County.

Among the deaths allegedly linked to the pair are the May 2022 shooting of Yahmell Montague and Angel Smith, who were engaged. Smith was seven months pregnant at the time. The baby survived.

The case was supposed to go to trial earlier this year. Prosecutors wrote in court documents that “disclosure of the witnesses’ identity will create a substantial risk of harm to them.”

Earlier this year, however, as the original trial date approached, prosecutors disclosed the identities as required to the defense attorneys so they could prepare — but the documents were subject to a protective order that barred them from being shared outside the defense team.

But the trial was delayed after Taylor said he was stuck in another case outside the state.

The case was investigated by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Baltimore Police and was the first major case brought by the Major Investigations Unit of the Baltimore state’s attorney’s office.

Ambush, 30, is being held in a jail in Alabama, where he is awaiting the resolution of an unrelated drug case. His attorney, Whitney Tillman, said she was not authorized to comment on his behalf.

In the initial YouTube video that disclosed the materials, the narrator chides Ambush for cooperating, saying Ambush “could’ve saved some lives” but was only speaking because his “back is against the wall.” Hundreds of comments denounce him as a snitch.

In a 2021 interview, Ambush said he was a childhood friend of Freddie Gray, was part of the riot that broke out the day of Gray’s funeral, and was shot 19 times in one year.

His rap videos collectively have millions of views on YouTube, including one that reached more than 400,000, and he once appeared onstage with NBA YoungBoy.