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LOS ANGELES — Both sides dropped their cases Wednesday in the trial of a man accused of murdering rapper Nipsey Hussle after a day’s delay over an attack on the accused by fellow inmates.
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 who were hit by gunfire.
Holder appeared in court with swollen eyes and staples closing a wound on the back of his head.
He was beaten with a razor and cut by two inmates while waiting in a holding cell Tuesday for court, his attorney Aaron Jansen said.
The motive for the attack was unclear and the matter was not discussed in the courtroom.
Holder did not comment during his trial.
Nipsey Hussle murder trial: The attorney claims the rapper’s death was premeditated in opening statements
Jansen called two defense witnesses, including a private investigator and a gang expert, who testified to the seriousness of the “espionage” allegations prosecutors say were the motive for the shooting.
“Growing up in the neighborhood, everyone knows the ramifications of being labeled a snitch,” said investigator Robert Freeman.
Both Hussle and Holder grew up in the same south Los Angeles neighborhood and had ties to the same gang, the Rollin’ 60s.
Without naming Hussle, Jansen asked whether discussions about the role of informant were particularly serious when they started with a figure revered in the group.
“If they’re an OG or being viewed, anything they say is almost gold in the streets,” Freeman replied.
Earlier witnesses testified that on March 31, 2019, while speaking outside the hip-hop star’s clothing store, The Marathon, Hussle Holder said there were rumors of “paperwork” suggesting he had informed the authorities and that Holder would have to take care of it. Holder returned about 10 minutes later and shot Hussle dead, the witnesses and prosecutors said.
In his cross-examination of Freeman, Assistant District Attorney John McKinney got him to acknowledge that such conversations are not uncommon and that while beatings are common, murders as a result are very rare.
“That kind of admonition is common in the Hood among homies and friends, isn’t it?” McKinney asked.
“Yes,” Freeman replied.
“It’s not uncommon for someone to hear about it and then address it. It happens all the time, doesn’t it?”
Freeman again replied “yes”.
“That person can do anything from deny it to put out a piece of paper to say it didn’t happen,” McKinney said, and Freeman agreed.
The question of “snitching” hung over the entire case, not only as an alleged motive but also in the reluctance to testify of prosecution witnesses, one of whom, Hussle’s friend and shooting eyewitness Evan “Rimpau” MacKenzie, failed to appear despite a subpoena and an arrest warrant.
More:Judge issues arrest warrant for eyewitnesses to Nipsey Hussle’s murder after failing to appear in court
McKinney dropped the prosecution’s case earlier Wednesday, the eighth day of testimony, though the first in almost a week after two planned days off and the delay because of Holder’s assault, first reported by Rolling Stone.
Faced with overwhelming evidence, including eyewitnesses who knew both Hussle and Holder, surveillance photos and videos, and testimony from the woman who acted as his unwitting getaway driver, Jansen acknowledged in his opening statement that Holder was the shooter but said there were mitigating factors Circumstances Circumstances, including lack of willfulness, constituting a not guilty charge of first-degree murder.
Hussle, whose real name was Ermias Asghedom, had just released his major label debut after years of underground acclaim and had been nominated for his first Grammy Award when he was killed at the age of 33.
