LOS ANGELES (AP) The two parties closed their case Wednesday in the trial of man accused of murdering rapper Nipsey Hussle after a day’s delay due to an assault on the accused by fellow prisoners.
Closing arguments are scheduled to begin Thursday in the trial of Eric Ronald Holder Jr.who is charged with first degree murder in Hussle’s murder and attempted murder of two other men hit by gunfire.
Holder appeared in court with swollen eyes and staples closing a wound on the back of his head.
He was punched and cut with a razor by two inmates as he waited in a holding cell to report to court on Tuesday, his attorney Aaron Jansen said.
The motive for the attack was unclear and the matter was not discussed in the courtroom.
Holder did not speak during his trial.
Jansen called two witnesses for the defense, including a private investigator and a gang expert who testified to the seriousness of the whistleblower allegations that the prosecution said was the motive for the shooting.
Growing up in the neighborhood, everyone knows the consequences of what it means to be called a snitch, said investigator, Robert Freeman.
Hussle and Holder both grew up in the same South Los Angeles neighborhood and had ties to the same gang, the Rollin ’60s.
Without naming Hussle, Jansen asked if discussions about acting as an informant were particularly serious if they came from a revered figure in the group.
If they’re an OG or watched, anything they say is almost gold on the streets, Freeman replied.
Previous witnesses said that on March 31, 2019, during a conversation outside the hip-hop star’s clothing store The Marathon, Hussle told Holder there were paperwork rumors suggesting that he had informed the authorities and that Holder needed to address it. Holder returned about 10 minutes later and shot Hussle, witnesses and the prosecution said.
In his cross-examination of Freeman, Assistant District Attorney John McKinney made him acknowledge that such conversations are not unusual and that while beatings are common, murders about them are very rare.
“This kind of warning is common in the neighborhood between mates, between friends, right?” McKinney asked.
Yes, Freeman answered.
It’s not uncommon for someone to hear about it and then talk about it. It happens all the time, right?
Freeman again replied, yes.
That person can do anything from denying it to getting a piece of paper to say it didn’t happen, McKinney said, and Freeman agreed.
The question of the snitch hovered over the whole affairnot only as an alleged motive, but also in the reluctance to testify of prosecution witnesses, one of whom, Hussle’s friend and eyewitness Evan Rimpau MacKenzie, failed to appear despite a subpoena and warrant. ‘stop.
McKinney had closed the prosecution’s case earlier on Wednesday, the eighth day of testimony albeit the first in nearly a week after a pair of scheduled days off and the delay in Holder’s assault, which was reported for the first time by rolling stone.
In the face of overwhelming evidence, including eyewitnesses who knew both Hussle and Holder, surveillance photos and video, and woman’s testimonywho acted as his unwitting getaway driverJansen acknowledged in his opening statement that Holder was the shooter, but said there were mitigating circumstances, including a lack of premeditation, that mean he is not guilty of first-degree murder.
Hussle, whose legal name was Ermias Asghedomhad just released his major label debut after years of underground success and had been nominated for his first Grammy Award when he was killed at 33.
Follow AP Entertainment writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton
This story has been corrected to show that two other men hit by gunfire are not dead.
