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| A judge sentenced Suge Knight Thursday to 28 years in prison for manslaughter, which was downgraded from a murder charge. File Photo by Frederick J. Brown/UPI |
By Danielle Haynes, UPI
A Los Angeles judge on Thursday sentenced former hip-hop mogul Suge Knight to 28 years in prison after he pleaded no contest to manslaughter stemming from a 2015 hit-and-run.
The 53-year-old, born Marion Knight, was originally charged with murder after he ran over Terry Carter, a hip-hop record label owner, after an altercation in the parking lot of a hamburger restaurant in Compton, Calif.
Knight entered the plea Sept. 20.
Terry Carter's wife, Lillian Carter, read a letter in court Thursday, saying she only sees references to his death when she enters his name online.
"What you do see is [video of] the defendant killing my husband," the letter said, NBC News reported. "He was so much more than the guy who the defendant killed with his truck. He as my husband, my best friend, my provider."
Knight also ran over Cle "Bone" Sloan in the January 2015 incident, but he survived.
Knight, Carter and Sloan were longtime associates and Knight said the incident was an accident after a dispute got out of control. He said he feared Carter and Sloan were going to shoot him and his only option was to flee.
Surveillance footage shows Knight about to leave the restaurant parking lot while driving a red pickup truck. Carter and Sloan appear to be trying to talk to Knight, who backs up and rams through Sloan and then Carter, who gets taken under the truck.
"If it hasn't been said to you by anyone else, let me tell you that my heart goes out you," Judge Ronald S. Coen told the victim's family during the statement, the Los Angeles Times reported.
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