THE ANGELS –
A 32-year-old man who grew up on the same streets in the same gang as Nipsey Hussle was found guilty Wednesday of first-degree murder in the 2019 shooting of the Grammy-winning rapper, who overcame his circumstances to become an inspiration. to the neighborhood where he was finally shot.
The Los Angeles County jury also found Eric R. Holder Jr. guilty on two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter for shooting other men at the scene. Prosecutors had sought two counts of attempted murder. Holder was also convicted of two counts of assault with a firearm against the same men.
Holder, dressed in a blue suit and face mask, stood in the small courtroom alongside his attorney as the verdict was read. He had no visible reaction. His attorney admitted during trial that Holder shot Hussle, 33, whose legal name is Ermias Asghedom, but had sought a lesser verdict of voluntary manslaughter.
“I am deeply disappointed in the first-degree murder verdict,” Holder’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Aaron Jansen, said in an email. “It was always going to be difficult given the high-profile circumstances surrounding the case.”
Jansen added that he and Holder were thankful that the jury agreed that the attempted murder charges were overloaded. They plan to appeal the murder conviction, he said.
A jury of nine women and three men deliberated for about six hours over two days before reaching a verdict. Most of their deliberations took place on Friday, and they quickly reached a unanimous decision on Wednesday, briefly reconvening after a four-day break. A couple of typos on the verdict form discovered while the results were being read forced jurors to briefly return to deliberations before the result could be made official, but did not influence the outcome.
“We are both proud and somewhat relieved that the verdict came in full and complete agreement with the charges that Eric Holder murdered Ermias Asghedom in cold blood,” Deputy District Attorney John McKinney said outside the courtroom. “We hope that today is a day that the Asghedom family and Nipsey Hussle’s friends and fans around the world find some kind of closure.”
No relatives of Hussle were in the courtroom when the verdict was read, nor did they attend the trial.
The judge has a wide range of options when he sentences Holder on September 15. The first-degree murder charge alone carries a sentence of 25 years to life.
“Obviously nothing that happened here today can heal the wound, nothing that happened here today can restore Mr. Asghedom to this world, but we hope there is a resounding peace in the fact that his killer will probably be in prison.” for the rest of your life,” McKinney said.
The verdict ends a legal saga that has lasted more than three years and a trial that was often delayed due to the pandemic.
Hussle and Holder had known each other for years when they were members of the Rollin’ 60s in South Los Angeles when a chance encounter outside the clothing store the rapper opened in their neighborhood led to the shooting and his death.
The evidence against Holder was overwhelming, from eyewitnesses to surveillance cameras from local businesses that captured his arrival, the shooting and his departure.
The shooting followed a conversation the two men had about rumors that Holder had been acting as an informant for authorities. Jansen argued that being publicly accused of being a “snitch” by a person as prominent as Hussle sparked a “heat of passion” in Holder that made him not guilty of first-degree murder.
Hussle’s close friend, Herman “Cowboy” Douglas, who was standing next to him when he was shot and testified at trial, said the conversation he overheard does not explain the murder for him.
“It feels good to have closure, but I still need to know why,” Douglas said after the verdict.
After years of hard work that earned him underground acclaim (his nickname was both a play on comedian Nipsey Russell’s name and a nod to the hustle and bustle the future hip-hop star displayed in making music and selling CDs), Hussle had just to release his debut major-label album and earned his first Grammy nomination when he was assassinated.
He was a much-loved figure in Los Angeles, especially in the South Los Angeles area, where he grew up and remained after gaining fame, buying property, and opening businesses.
A year after his death, Hussle was mourned at a memorial at the stadium then known as Staples Center, and celebrated at a Grammy Awards performance that included DJ Khaled and John Legend.
It was more than two years after that that the man who shot him would go on trial.
“Today was really about Nipsey Hussle and the legacy that he leaves behind,” McKinney said Wednesday. “This verdict and his life story will surely be talked about on Crenshaw and Slauson, but the significance of it will extend far beyond those streets.”