Murder was the case that they gave him, and days before his trial was slated to begin, the man who many (and by “many” I mean “me”) believe sucked the soul out of hip-hop, is receiving his just desserts.
Marion “Suge” Knight recently entered a plea of no contest to a charge of voluntary manslaughter before his upcoming murder trial and received a sentence of 28 years on Thursday.
The case stems from a January 2015 incident where Knight allegedly came to the set of Straight Outta Compton to cause mayhem about how he was being portrayed in the film (he was also indicted on a charge of threatening Compton director F. Gary Gray).
The 53-year-old admitted that on that day, he used his Ford F-150 as a weapon when he reversed his car, rammed the car into one man, who was allegedly attacking him, and then drove over 55-year-old over Terry Carter, another Compton record mogul and executive producer on the soundtrack for Ice Cube’s 1998 film, The Players Club. The Root could not confirm if Knight left the movie set rolling down the street smoking indo, sipping on gin and juice.
The irony of it is that the Guardian reports that Carter, who died of his injuries, was Knight’s friend, and met up with Knight that day to try to smooth things over between Knight and Dr. Dre, who used to be his business partner on Death Row.
Knight initially claimed that the incident was an accident, telling prosecutors that it was nothing but a gangsta party, but alas, the prosecution wasn’t going for it.
TMZ reports that, “Knight’s sentence is stiffer than a typical voluntarily manslaughter because he had a prior felony conviction in 1997. He also got an extra 5 years because the Carter killing was deemed a ‘serious and violent’ felony. He got an additional year due to his truck being a deadly weapon.”
Knight will reportedly be credited for the time spent in prison—meaning that the three and a half years he spent in jail will be deducted from his 28 years.
Knight, who will be 79-years-old or dust on his release date, is kinda really stranded on death row these days.
Oh well. Good luck, Sugar Bear.