Former rap mogul Suge Knight sentenced to 28 years in prison
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (FOX 11/ CNS) - Former rap mogul Marion "Suge'' Knight, who pleaded no contest last month to voluntary manslaughter for running over a man with a pickup truck in the parking lot of a Compton hamburger stand in 2015, was sentenced Thursday to 28 years in state prison.
Knight, 53, made the plea Sept. 20 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, days before his long-awaited trial was set to begin in connection with the Jan. 29, 2015, killing of Terry Carter, 55, following an argument on the set of the movie "Straight Outta Compton."
He also admitted an allegation that he used a deadly weapon -- a truck -- during the commission of the crime in the parking lot of Tam's Burgers in the 1200 block of West Rosecrans Avenue.
Knight also struck and seriously injured Cle ``Bone'' Sloan, who has recovered, authorities said.
The fatal confrontation, which was captured on dramatic surveillance video, occurred near a filming set for a promotional video for ``Straight Outta Compton,'' the story of the rap group N.W.A.
Knight had claimed he was trying to flee the scene in his truck, contending that Sloan -- who was working security for the film set -- was armed with a gun.
He was facing a potential life prison term if convicted of murder, attempted murder and hit-and-run. Those charges were dismissed, along with a pair of other pending cases in which he was charged with robbery involving the alleged theft of a camera from a female paparazzo whom Knight accused of taking photos of his son in September 2014 and alleged criminal threats against F. Gary Gray, the director of ``Straight Outta Compton,'' in August 2014.
Knight, a Compton native and former football player, co-founded Death Row Records, which in its heyday in the early 1990s was generating revenues of about $100 million per year.
He helped launch some of rap's biggest acts, including Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur. He was with Shakur the night he was gunned down in 1996.
Knight served five years in prison for assault and federal weapons violations and, after his release in 2001, spent another 10 months behind bars for violating parole by hitting a Hollywood nightclub valet.
In August 2014, he was shot a half-dozen times at a Los Angeles-area nightclub.