Suge Knight has pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and has agreed to serve 28 years in prison, the Associated Press reports. The charges stem from a 2015 incident in which the Death Row Records founder struck and killed a man named Terry Carter with his truck, during the shooting of the N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton.
Knight ran over Carter after a fistfight with Compton consultant Cle “Bone” Sloan, whom he also clipped with his truck. Attorneys for Knight have said that he was acting in self-defense and that Sloan was armed, which Sloan has denied.
The gangsta rap mogul entered his no contest plea in Los Angeles Superior Court Thursday. His trial was scheduled to begin October 1. According to the AP, his plea deal calls for him to serve 22 years in prison, with another six because the manslaughter was a third strike felony violation.
The legal proceedings against Knight have been unusually dramatic from the beginning. Two of his attorneys were indicted for alleged witness tampering earlier this year, and in 2017 his fiancee pled no contest to violating a court order by selling video of Knight hitting Carter and Sloan with his truck. While awaiting trial for the truck incident, Knight was also accused of making death threats against Straight Outta Compton director F. Gary Gray.
