LOS ANGELES — Nipsey Hussle was a hip-hop star who was trying to establish his neighborhood with him until a friend down the street gunned him down, a prosecutor said in his closing arguments Thursday.
“This man was different,” Los Angeles County Assistant District Attorney John McKinney told jurors, trying to humanize Hussle after two weeks of testimony delving into the technical details surrounding the 2019 shooting. “He wanted to change the neighborhood. He kept the same friends. And the neighborhood loved him. They called him Neighborhood Nip.”
McKinney’s presentation was at the trial of Eric R. Holder Jr., charged with the first-degree murder of 33-year-old Hussle, whose real name was Ermias Asghedom.
Holder’s attorney, Aaron Jansen, acknowledged that Holder shot Hussle, as he did throughout the trial. But he argued to the jury during his own shutdown that they should find his client guilty of the lesser charge of first degree manslaughter because, after a conversation in which Hussle told him there were rumors about his telling authorities where acted “heat of passion” .
“That heat of passion was being publicly called a snitch by someone as famous as Nipsey Hussle,” Jansen said, later adding, “It’s a provocation that fuels anger and strong emotions.”
Hussle and Holder were both rappers, one successful, the other unsuccessful, who grew up as members of the same South Los Angeles gang, the Rollin’ ’60s, prosecutor McKinney said.
He showed the jury a photograph taken shortly before the shooting of Hussle crouched with an infant in a t-shirt that said “Crenshaw” that he had bought at Hussle’s South LA clothing store, The Marathon, which they were standing in front of.
“He wasn’t a gang banger anymore. He was a world-renowned recording artist and so much more,” the prosecutor said. “It really is a shame that his life was taken so brutally and coldly on his own property, in his own neighborhood, by one of his own gang. From someone he considered a friend.”
Jansen painted a similar picture of Holder, saying he’s outgrown his fledgling gang life and moved miles away.
“By 2019, he had the Rollin’ 60s fully stuck in his rearview mirror,” Jansen said. “He just lived his life in Long Beach.”
Holder hadn’t been in the neighborhood he grew up in for years, only stopping at Hussle’s Mall with a friend because he had a craving for food from one of his favorite fast food joints. Jansen said he was then taken by surprise.
“That was a serious allegation made by someone of Nipsey Hussle’s stature against little Eric Holder Jr. who had just come into the neighborhood for his chili cheese fries,” Jansen said.
He said it gave Holder fears for his life and safety.
“What if he calls you a snitch in a song and gives you a name?” said Janssen.
McKinney downplayed this apparent motive, calling it a quiet conversation “in the nature of a council” and saying no one watching believed there was any real animosity or imminent danger.
“I am implying that the motive for killing Nipsey Hussle had little or nothing to do with the conversation they had,” McKinney said. “There was already a pre-existing jealousy or envy.”
There was no testimony to this effect at the trial and the defense disagreed. The judge let the testimony stand, but reminded the jury to focus on the actual evidence from the trial.
McKinney used the police’s extensive surveillance and body camera footage surrounding the shooting to guide the jury through an up-to-the-minute narration of the day.
He repeatedly showed video captured by a camera across a parking lot of the moment Holder appeared with guns and knocked Hussle to the ground.
Holder was gone about 10 minutes before coming back and firing. McKinney told the jury there was ample time for premeditation within the meaning of the law.
“He thought about it and did it,” McKinney said. “These are all intentional means. That doesn’t mean he planned it for weeks.”
Jansen countered that it was “a short period of time for such a serious, life-threatening provocation”.
“Obviously, emotions haven’t had time to clear up in that short period of time,” said the defender. “There was no time to think. There was no time to think.”
He even said the fact that Holder kicked Hussle in the head while he was on the ground was evidence the lesser charge was more accurate.
“It shows anger,” said Jansen. “It shows passion.”
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