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'90s Rap Mogul Suge Knight Pleads No Contest To Voluntary Manslaughter
File: Marion "Suge" Knight appears for a hearing at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center March 9, 2015 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
Marion "Suge" Knight pleaded no contest Thursday to voluntary manslaughter, the Associated Press reports, for running over two men four years ago, killing one of them. The accompanying sentence: 28 years in prison.
He'd been charged with murder, attempted murder, and hit-and-run after fleeing the scene of a fight outside a Compton burger stand in January 2015.
Remember Snoop Dogg's "Death Row is the label that pays me" from "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang"? Knight was one of that label's three co-founders, alongside Dr. Dre and the D.O.C.
Knight got in a fistfight with Cle "Bone" Sloan, a consultant on the N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton, ending with Knight clipping him with his pickup truck -- and running over businessman Terry Carter, who died from his injuries.
You can see video of the hit-and-run here:
Knight's side was that he was acting in self-defense, fleeing armed attackers.
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The sentence includes 22 years for voluntary manslaughter, with an added six thanks to it being a third strike violation. The alternative was going to trial and facing up to life in prison for murder.
FILE - In this Aug. 15, 1996, file photo, rapper Tupac Shakur, left, and a founder of Death Row Records, Marion "Suge" Knight, attend a voter registration event in South Central Los Angeles. (Frank Wiese/AP, File)
Suge was a major force behind rappers like Dre, Snoop, and Tupac, though the label eventually ended up in bankruptcy, and he lost control of it. His previous felony convictions include armed robbery and assault with a gun.
He pleaded guilty way back in 1995 and was sentenced to five years' probation for assaulting two rappers in a Hollywood recording studio. He was sent to prison in February 1997 for violating his parole, getting in a fight at a Las Vegas hotel hours before Tupac was killed in a drive-by -- riding in Knight's car.
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