Ajit Karn
Killer of rapper Nipsey Hussle has been sentenced to at least 60 years in prison
Los Angeles: On Wednesday, the man who killed Grammy-winning rapper Nipsey Hussle on a street in Los Angeles in 2019 was sentenced to at least 60 years in prison.
Eric Holder didn’t say he didn’t kill Hussle, who was a rising star whose death shocked the music world, but his lawyers said he did it on the spot in the “heat of passion.”
But a jury decided last year that Holder had acted on purpose when he shot at Hussle at least 10 times after the two men got into a fight over claims that the attacker was “snitching” to the police.
Judge H. Clay Jacke of the Los Angeles County Superior Court gave Holder a minimum of 25 years in prison for the murder, plus an extra 25 years because a gun was used.
Holder got an extra 10 years in prison because he shot and hurt two other men who were nearby.
During a court hearing in the US, the man who shot and killed rapper Nipsey Hussle was given a sentence of 60 years to life in prison.
Hussle, a former gang member, was shot and killed in front of the clothing store he owned. This caused a lot of sadness in his hometown of Los Angeles and among his superstar peers, who praised his music and work in the community.
Hussle grew up in the Crenshaw neighbourhood of the city. At the time of his death, when he was 33, he had turned the block where he used to hustle into a retail and job-creating hub for his Marathon Clothing company.
But he still had ties to the world of gangs where he grew up.
Holder, a gang member who was 32 years old, and Hussle were both part of the “Rollin 60s” Crips group.
During the trial, prosecutor John McKinney said that Hussle had told Holder that there were rumours that Holder had been “snitching” before Holder left the parking lot where the two were talking.
When Holder came back a short time later, he “pulled out not one but two guns and started shooting” in a “violence explosion.”
Video was taken of the killing.
In his final argument, McKinney said that the murder was “cold-blooded” and “calculated.” He also said that Holder had “quite a bit of time to plan and think about it.”
But Holder’s lawyer told the jury that the killing was “an act of impulse and haste” and that manslaughter should have been the charge.
Aaron Jansen said that his client, who he said had a mental illness, had already been threatened with death and that “his life in prison is going to be hell for as long as it lasts.”
The judge said he would suggest that Holder live in a place where his mental health needs can be met.
“He saw a chance”
A month after Hussle was killed in 2019, thousands of people gathered for a service in his honour. Stevie Wonder, Snoop Dogg, and former president Barack Obama were among those who spoke, and Obama also wrote a letter that was read at the service.
Obama wrote that when most people looked at the Crenshaw neighbourhood where Nipsey grew up, they saw only gangs, guns, and hopelessness, but Nipsey saw potential.
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“He had faith. He saw a community that taught him to keep going even though it had problems.”
Hussle, whose real name was Ermias Asghedom, won two Grammy Awards after he died, in 2020, for “Racks in the Middle” and “Higher,” which were both rap/sung performances.
He was given a star on the Walk of Fame in August, which would have been his 37th birthday.
