Marion 'Suge' Knight to serve 28 years after plea deal over Compton death
The rap mogul co-founded a label that once boasted the likes of Dr Dre, Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg.
Friday 21 September 2018 07:10, UK
Death Row Records co-founder Marion 'Suge' Knight will serve 28 years in jail for running a man over during a fight in Los Angeles.
The rap mogul, whose label once listed Dr Dre, Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg, was charged with murder, attempted murder and hit-and-run after fleeing the scene of the altercation outside a burger stand in Compton in January 2015.
Knight and Cle "Bone" Sloan, a consultant on the N.W.A biopic "Straight Outta Compton", were involved in the fistfight that ended up with Knight clipping Mr Sloan with his pickup truck.
He then ran over another man, businessman Terry Carter, who died from his injuries.
Ahead of his scheduled murder trial, Knight, 53, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in exchange for the prison term at Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday.
The former music producer will be sentenced in October when he will be handed the 28-year sentence.
As part of the agreement, the murder charges against him will be dismissed by prosecutors, along with the separate criminal cases charging him with robbery and making criminal threats.
His lawyers maintain he was acting in self-defence as he fled armed attackers when he ran over Mr Carter and Mr Sloan.
The incident in Compton came some six years after Death Row Records went into bankruptcy, which saw Knight lose control of the once prestigious company.
Knight was convicted of armed robbery and assault with a gun during his time with the label, which is widely seen as having contributed to its decline.
He pleaded no contest in 1995 and was sentenced to five years' probation for assaulting two rap entertainers at a Hollywood recording studio in 1992.
In February 1997, he was jailed for violating terms of the probation by taking part in a fight at a Las Vegas hotel hours before Shakur was fatally wounded in a drive-by attack as he rode in Knight's car just east of the Las Vegas Strip.
Shakur's killing remains unsolved.
He had faced life in prison if convicted of murder for killing Mr Carter.