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Andrew Dalton
Los Angeles (AP) —Nipsey Hustle is a hip-hop star who tried to grow his neighborhood until he had friends on the same street. Prosecutors said he had shot him down in the closing discussions on Thursday.
"This guy was different," said Deputy District Attorney John McKinney, who tried to humanize the hustle after two weeks of testimony on the technical details surrounding the 2019 shooting. , Told the jury. "He wanted to change the neighborhood. He had the same friends. And the neighborhood loved him. They called him Neighbor Hood Nip."
McKinney's presentation was given at the trial of Eric R. Holder Jr., who was accused of one murder of 33-year-old Hustle. ..
Holder's lawyer, Aaron Janssen, who has a closing discussion late Thursday, hasn't denied that the client fired a shot that killed Hustle, but by mitigating the situation he He said he would not commit a first-class murder. Perhaps he will urge the jury to be guilty of a second murder or slaughter.
Hustle and Holder are both rappers, one successful, the other unsuccessful, and grew up as a member of the same South Los Angeles gang, McKinney said.
He was crouching with a toddler in a shirt with the words "Clenshaw" purchased from Hustle's South LA clothing store The Marathon, taken shortly before shooting. I showed the photo to the judges. Outside.
"He was no longer a gangbanger. He was a world-famous recording artist and more than that," the prosecutor said. "It's a real shame that his life was robbed so cruelly and coldly by someone of his own gang in his own neighborhood, on his own fortune. By someone he thought was a friend."
Much of the testimony in the trial was based on a conversation about "snitching" between Holder and Hustle before Holder returned with two guns.
A friend of Hustle who heard the whole story said that there were rumors of "paperwork" suggesting that Hustle was talking to Holder and that Holder was talking to the authorities, and that Holder had to deal with it. Said said.
McKinney disregarded this apparent motive for shooting and said he could not put the holder in a hot and unreasonable state to justify less than one murder. ..
"This was a conversation between two companions. One might want to take care of the other companion around you. I'm trying to tell you that there's something, "McKinney said. .. "That was the nature of the advice."
McKinney emphasized that no one who observed the conversation thought there was hostility or imminent danger.
"I submit to you that the motive for killing Nypsy Hustle had little or no connection to the conversation they had," McKinney said. "There was already existing jealousy and envy."
During the trial, there was no testimony of this effect, and the defense opposed it.
The judge upheld the statement, but reminded the jury to focus on the actual evidence from the trial.
McKinney took the jury through the minute-by-minute story of the day, using extensive surveillance and police body camera images surrounding the shoot.
He repeatedly showed a video shot by a camera across the parking lot at the moment the holder appeared with a gun and the hustle fell to the ground. The
holder was off for about 10 minutes before returning and firing. McKinney told the jury that there was plenty of time for pre-meditation, as defined by law.
"He thought about it and did it," McKinney said. "It's all a deliberate measure, not that he planned for weeks."
Holder has also been charged with attempting to kill two men who were shot. McKinney said it wasn't a coincidence.
"Nipsey was clearly his intended target," the prosecutor said. "But evidence shows that he was willing to kill or drive away everyone in the space and went there intentionally."
McKinney, Holder Said it was because he didn't know who else in the group was armed. He was fortunate to have no one else. The
holder did not respond visibly to the presentation. He still showed signs of attack by two of his fellow prison inmates, including swelling around his eyes and staples behind his head. clear.
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