Former hip hop media mogul Sure Knight has been sentenced to 28 years in prison for the hit-and-run murder of Terry Carter, which occurred in 2015 on the set of the film Straight Out Of Compton. This is the controversial former Death Row Records CEO’s third set of major crimes in the past four years.
Knight’s trial for the vehicular manslaughter was scheduled for September 24, after several delays. His trial was originally supposed to be scheduled in January, until it was scheduled to April, and later rescheduled due to the mogul’s “eye-related issues.”
This sentence was relatively lenient since the former CEO pleaded no contest to the charges of manslaughter, which is more lenient than a murder charge. Knight originally faced life in prison for Carter’s death, with additional charges of attempted murder of security guard Cle “Bone” Sloan who was hit by Knight’s vehicle and one count of hit-and-run.
“He never got out of the car, to see if my uncle was okay. This has to be in my family forever. Nothing will be the same. Not even an apology, condolences have been made to my family,” Carter’s niece told CNN in tearful interview.
Back in 2016 Knight’s lawyers tried to hold acclaimed hip-hop artists Ice Cube and Dr. Dre —both former members of NWA, which the film Straight Outta Compton was based on — accountable for the death of Carter. A Grand Jury disagreed, holding Knight entirely responsible for Carter’s death.
Despite being injured in the incident with Knight, Sloan refused to testify against the former hip hop mogul stating, “I will not be used to send Suge Knight to prison.” Sloan did not identify Knight as the person in the vehicle, elaborating that he did not want to “snitch” on the now convicted killer.
“From the beginning to the end, he was the aggressor. We knew he was the aggressor,” Knight’s lawyers said of Sloan regarding the incident. Sloan attended one hearing due to being subpoenaed by the court in this case.
Sloan suffered from two fractured ankles, a serious cut to his head, two torn ligaments in his knees and a shoulder injury due to the incident. According to the testimony from both attorneys a dispute between both party’s present got physical.
“It just got to a point where it came to blows. I think both people were physically hitting each other, but hitting each other and running people over are two different things,” Sloan’s lawyer Stephen Bernard explained.
Knight has been a source of controversy since the 90s, in a well-known story ,which was depicted in Straight Outta Compton, the former media mogul allegedly used physical intimidation against Eazy-E and Jerry Heller to get Dr. Dre out of his contract with Ruthless Records.
In addition to this event, Knight has been charged with various crimes since 1987, with a criminal rap sheet that extends a bit further than his relatively career in the music business. This includes being indicted for making death threats against the director of Straight Outta Compton, along with an assault on photographer.
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