USA-CRIME/KNIGHT Witness balks on stand in murder case against rap mogul Suge Knight

Record ID: 134625

  • Title: USA-CRIME/KNIGHT Witness balks on stand in murder case against rap mogul Suge Knight
  • Date: 13th April 2015
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (APRIL 08, 2015) (UNRESTRICTED POOL) KNIGHT SPEAKING IN COURT
  • Embargoed: 28th April 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAH4PGP0QLS9MKML8XQ7L9SB8K
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A key witness in the hit-and-run murder case against Marion "Suge" Knight told a Los Angeles judge on Monday (April 13) he was reluctant to testify against the one-time rap music mogul, declining even to positively identify him in open court.
    Cle "Boan" Sloan, one of two men Knight is accused of deliberately running over in his pick-up truck at a hamburger stand in the Los Angeles suburb of Compton, took the witness stand at a preliminary hearing in the case.
    Prosecutors say Knight traded punches with Sloan through the window of his vehicle before putting the truck into reverse, knocking Sloan and another man, Terry Carter, to the ground. They say he then pulled forward to run over both men.
    Carter later died. Sloan suffered a badly mangled left foot and head injuries.
    Knight is charged with murder, attempted murder and two counts of felony hit-and-run in the January 29 fracas, which followed an argument on the set of a commercial for the film "Straight Outta Compton."
    On the witness stand at the start of the hearing, Sloan, who described himself as a "non-active gang member," balked at giving testimony that would incriminate the defendant.
    "I will not be used to send Suge Knight to prison," he said.
    Asked by Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Barnes if he could identify Knight as she pointed to him in the courtroom, Sloan said, "That doesn't look like Mr. Knight."
    Sloan had been granted immunity by prosecutors for whatever role he might have played in the events of January 29 - something that Knight's attorney, Matthew Fletcher, finds suspicious.
    "He [Sloan] admits that he attacked him and he admits that he brutally attacked him. One hundred percent. And then they turn around and ask to be given immunity to testify, you know you give immunity to guilty people, right?" said Fletcher.
    If found guilty of murder, the co-founder of the influential hip-hop label Death Row Records would face a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life in prison under California's three-strikes rule. He is being held on $25 million bail.
  • Copyright Holder: POOL (CAN SELL)
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