UPDATED, 3:40 p.m.: Rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight is facing life in prison after being charged with murder, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Monday.
Knight is also charged with one count of attempted murder and two counts of hit-and-run with an allegation that he committed a serious and violent felony while out on bail, in relation to the deadly hit-and-run outside a Compton, Calif., restaurant on Thursday.
According to the district attorney’s office, Knight ran over two men with his truck following an altercation — killing one and injuring the other. The Death Row Records founder is being held without bail, after he was deemed a flight risk and his bail was revoked.
Due to Knight’s prior convictions, this would be a third-strike case, the district attorney’s office said. Knight is due for arraignment Tuesday at Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Previously…
Marion “Suge” Knight’s plan to get out of jail came to an abrupt halt Monday when his $2.2 million dollar bail was revoked.
“Homicide detectives asked the bail commissioner this morning and it was raised to ‘no bail’ because he is a flight risk,” Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy Mike Barraza told TheWrap.
Knight is accused of running over two men in Compton on Thursday in the parking lot of Tam’s Burgers in the 1200 block of West Rosecrans Avenue. Investigators say he drove his pickup truck backward then forward, killing one man and injuring the other.
As TheWrap previously reported, Knight, 49, turned himself in to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s West Hollywood station Friday and was booked at 3 a.m. PT. His bail was initially set at over $2 million, with his first court appearance scheduled for Tuesday.
Knight’s early morning surrender came hours after the hip-hop mogul allegedly barreled into two men with his truck and then drove away. The incident happened near a promotional shoot for the upcoming Universal film “Straight Outta Compton,” authorities said. The film chronicles the rise of groundbreaking rap group N.W.A.
On Friday TheWrap identified the deceased victim as Terry
“We have several witnesses who saw [Knight] run over the men. It looked to them it was intentional,” Lt. John Corina of the Sheriff’s Department’s homicide bureau said on Thursday night.
Witnesses told police that about a half hour earlier the two men got into an argument with Knight. “It looks like it carried over to the area where the two men got run over,” said Corina.
Knight’s attorney James Blatt confirmed that his client was behind the wheel of the pickup that struck the men, but said Knight was acting out of fear and was trying to escape as several people attacked him. Blatt also claimed that Knight was unaware that he had hit two men with the truck, which was later found miles away in a Westwood parking lot.
This is not the first time that Knight has been associated with violence. He was arrested in October on suspicion of stealing a female photographer’s camera, as TheWrap previously reported. When the alleged hit-and-run occurred, he had been out on $500,000 bail in connection with the camera incident and was awaiting trial on a related robbery charge.
Meanwhile in August, Knight was shot multiple times at a pre-MTV VMA’s party hosted by R&B star Chris Brown.
Knight previously did jail time from the late 1990s to 2001 for violating his probation on an assault and weapons case. In 2003, he was sent to prison again for the same offense.