Death Row Records founder Suge Knight has agreed to 28 years in prison after pleading no contest to the 2015 hit-and-run death of a man. The charge Knight plead no contest to was voluntary manslaughter, in which Terry Carter was plowed over by a vehicle Knight was at the wheel of at a restaurant in Compton.
The Los Angeles Times reveals the plea deal was reached in a courtroom in downtown LA. The deal was presided by Judge Ronald S. Coen who received the agreement from Knight who only uttered “yes.”
The plea deal was initiated by Al DeBlanc, the attorney for Knight, to the L.A. County district attorney office on Wednesday. Reports state Knight did not want to take the plea deal with media present.
By accepting the 28 years, other pending charges against Knight will be dismissed. Suge Knight will have formal sentencing on October 4. Knight has been locked up since January of 2015. In a widely circulated video, he ran over two men, one of which was Carter, who the former rap mogul stated was a friend.
The plea deal gets in just under the wire for Suge Knight as he was scheduled to being trial on September 24. He was originally facing life without the possibility of parole in the case.
Earlier this Summer Suge was in headlines for not being able to leave prison to attend the funeral of his mother who died in June.
Prior to that, attorneys Matthew Fletcher and Thaddeus Culpepper, who at the time represented Knight, were indicted on conspiracy charges to bribe a potential witness. In February of 2018, Knight’s ex-fiancee Toi-Lin Kelly was sentenced to three years in prison.
