Los Angeles — More than three years after rapper Nipsey Hussle was killed in 2019 in front of a local clothing store, he hurt the neighborhood of South Los Angeles, where he devoted his adult life to the champion. rice field. R. Holder Jr. was found guilty of first-class murder in the case. This ruling concludes a painful chapter in the history of hip-hop these days.
At the trial, the prosecutor described the gunman as an indignant acquaintance who belonged to a gangster on the same street as Hustle, but felt despised by him while running in a short parking lot.
Mr. Holder’s trigger was not disputed in court. His own elected lawyer and witnesses identified him as the perpetrator who fired him at the hustle with two pistols, hit his rapper at least 10 times, and then kicked his head. Did.
However, Mr. Holder’s legal team claimed that the case was overcharged. Aaron Janssen, a public defender on behalf of Mr. Holder, said the killings were unplanned and instead took place in a “passionate heat.” Hustle evoked rumors in the neighborhood and rumors that Mr. Holder cooperated with law enforcement agencies. , Or eavesdropped, a serious crime in the gangster world, urging him to get things done.
Mr. Holder should have been charged with voluntary manslaughter, his lawyer said.
The jury has indicated that he has agreed with the Los Angeles County prosecutor after having a less than an hour meeting on the second day of the deliberation. After eating french fries several times, I went through the parking lot and faced the rapper.
Mr. Holder, 32, was also found guilty of two manslaughter attempts due to two bystanders injured in the shooting, less than the number of attempted murders brought by the prosecutor.
Mr. Holder’s lawyer said his client had no intention of harming either of the injured men who were strangers to him when he attacked the hustle outside the marathon clothing store in the Clenshaw district. Insisted. The rapper and his perpetrators grew up.
In addition, Mr. Holder possessed a firearm as a felony and was found guilty of two assaults with deadly weapons. He could face life imprisonment and was to be sentenced on September 15. Janssen said in a ruling that he would ask the judge to consider Mr. Holder’s mental health history, including the diagnosis of schizophrenia a year ago.
In court, Mr. Holder stared forward without flinch. He wore a navy blue suit and white shoes. There was no sound in the courtroom when the verdict was announced — there was no response from half the gallery.
Hustle, whose real name is Elmias Joseph Asgedom, emerged as a hard-boiled, motivational lyricist after his death at the age of 33, transcending the early days of being a member of the local Lorin’s Clips in the 1960s. Widely mourned as a principled artist and entrepreneur. Community ambassador. In April 2019, his public monument, known as the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, attracted about 20,000 fans, including Stevie Wonder and Snoop Dogg.
Most of his career wasn’t a commercial hit maker, but Hustle is known for his wide-ranging industry ties and independent business flair, before releasing his major debut in 2018, Victory Lap. I have been selling music on my own terms for 15 years. With a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album and a management partnership with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, near the end of his life, the rapper was ready for a deeper move to the mainstream.
In the process, Hustle preached black empowerment through business and education and invested his prize money as a musician in the neighborhood where he grew up. Hustle, along with a group of his patrons, purchased a strip mall on the corner of Clencha Boulevard and Lawson Avenue. The mall also has his marathon store, which helped open a nearby coworking space dedicated to increasing the diversity of science and technology.
In response to the ruling, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney John McKinney, who charged the case, said he hoped it would bring “certain peace” to rapper friends and fans.
“This verdict and the story of his life will surely be told in Clenshaw and Lawson, but its meaning will go far beyond those streets,” McKinney said. ..
According to court testimony, on Sunday when Hustle was murdered, he stopped at a shopping plaza for an unannounced visit, as he often did. While catching up with his friends and employees in the parking lot, Hustle took about 30 minutes to sign and take a picture with his fans.
Brian Nita Nicholson, a woman whom Mr. Holder was casually dating at the time, was taking him to the area, Nicholson testified. Nicholson, an important witness to the prosecution who said he had sent Mr. Holder into and out of the shooting scene, was exempt from the prosecution for her appearance in court.
When Mr. Holder pulled to the square to get something to eat, she found a hustle in the parking lot and said he passed by saying he looked handsome, she said at the stand. I did. Holder, a fellow of Rollin’60s Crips, said she approached Hussle for a short conversation while Nicholson was waiting in the car.
According to testimony, the encounter between the two men was casual and unobtrusive. However, the prosecutor told Mr. Hustle that Hustle had told Mr. Holder that rumors that he had been tapped were circulating in the neighborhood. Hustle advised Holder to “get the paperwork” to show that he didn’t have it, McKinney said.
“It was just a regular conversation,” McKinney told the jury. “But obviously it wasn’t.” He called the pair “two men whose arcs of life are bending in different directions.”
When the man finished speaking, Nicholson said he heard Snitch when he approached Hustle in search of a selfie posted on Facebook. This is the last photo of the wrapper. “No, I wasn’t afraid at all,” said Nicholson, who was asked in court if he felt the conflict was about to occur.
When Nicholson pulled him to another nearby parking lot to allow Holder to eat, she testified and he pulled out his pistol and began loading it. He walked back towards the Hustle store. After a while, Nicholson heard a gunshot.
According to witnesses, Mr. Holder confronted the rapper outside and said, “You went through” when you fired.
“You got me,” Hustle said, according to the prosecutor. Two men, Kelly Reisan and Shelmi Villanueva, who stood with Hustle, were injured in the shooting.
In the opening statement, prosecutor McKinney described Nicholson as a kind of unconscious accomplice. “I think you’ll find her naive and simple in her,” he said. Mr. Holder almost avoided her eyes and looked at her calmly when she testified.
In that testimony, Mr. Nicholson said that when Mr. Holder returned to her car, he told her to drive, or he would slap her. That night she learned of Hustle’s death. However, Nicholson said that when her mother recognized her white Chevrolet Cruze in the news, she realized that she might be involved with Mr. Holder more than a day after the shoot. She said.
McKinney emphasized that Nicholson immediately agreed to cooperate with the police, allowing authorities to access the data from her phone and allow hours of interviews. “I thought,’What a hell, this is also my reputation,'” she testified.
In addition to being the agreed motive for shooting, the concept of snitching, and its very important thing in gang culture, was approaching trial. Mr. Holder was repeatedly identified as a shooter, but both lawyers quoted witnesses who were hesitant to testify in detail or appear in court for fear of retaliation.
“I don’t know anything, I can’t see anything,” said Raysan, who was injured in the incident, during his turn at the witness stand.
“Don’t you want to testify what happened?” Asked the prosecutor.
“That’s right,” said Raysan.
Defense lawyer Janssen argued that it was exactly that anti-niche culture that turned the conversation between Hustle and Holder into a provocation.
“Even those shot do not want to go in and testify to members of Lorin’s 60s gang,” Janssen said in a post-verdict interview. “I thought these facts confirmed what we were saying. Eric Holder didn’t even want to be labeled as a snitch for fear of retaliation.”
Janssen added: “I just wanted people to remember that Eric Holder Jr. is human. He did a terrible thing, and he would have to face justice for that.”
Last Tuesday, Mr. Holder was attacked during his detention, temporarily delaying the final day of the trial. His lawyer said his client was beaten in the face and “sliced with some sort of razor.”
Due to the high-profile nature of the case, and because of the question about the consequences of eavesdropping, Janssen said his client should have been detained.
In court, prosecutors were partially dependent on the testimony of Herman Douglas, known as the cowboy, a former member of Lorin’s 60s who worked at the Hustle Marathon store.
Douglas testified that he was no longer involved in the gang’s life, but was closely watching all cars and people across his road for signs of danger. At any point in the conversation between Hustle and Mr. Holder, he said he didn’t feel the rapper was in danger. “I snatched him from there,” Douglas said.
When the defense asked Douglas if eavesdropping could have dire consequences, such as being “beaten or killed,” Douglas said it was unlikely. He said his participation in the trial could be considered eavesdropping by some. But things have changed since he came to the neighborhood.
“I’m not worried,” he said. “Maybe in the 80’s, yeah, but this is 2022.”
After being convicted, Mr. Douglas sat outside the courtroom, shaking his shoulders and crying in his hand. Later, he told reporters that he didn’t know if he would feel closed after the death of his friend. But he said he wanted to show others that attending the trial was sometimes worth speaking.
“I just do the right thing,” he said. “No matter what people say.”