Almost two years after rapper PnB Rock was gunned down in a South Los Angeles restaurant throughout a theft, a person was convicted of his homicide.
Freddie Lee Trone was discovered responsible Wednesday by a jury in a Compton courtroom after deliberating for lower than 4 hours, in accordance with the Los Angeles County district legal professional’s workplace. As well as, Trone and one other defendant, Tremont Jones, had been convicted of two counts of theft and conspiracy to commit theft.
For the report:
4:38 p.m. Aug. 7, 2024An earlier model of this text said that Tremont Jones and Freddie Lee Trone had been discovered responsible of homicide. Solely Trone was convicted of homicide.
PnB Rock, 30 — whose authorized identify was Rakim Allen — walked into the Roscoe’s Home of Hen & Waffles on Sept. 12, 2022, carrying “a number of hundred thousand {dollars}” price of bijou, prosecutors stated. The bling caught the attention of Jones, who authorities say set in movement the lethal theft.
Jones notified Trone concerning the potential mark. And Trone then despatched his 17-year-old son, armed with a gun and a ski masks, into the eatery to steal Allen’s jewellery, prosecutors stated.
Authorities allege that the masked teen walked as much as Allen whereas he was seated at a desk, pulled a gun and demanded his jewellery and different valuables.
However Allen refused, prosecutors stated, and that’s when {the teenager} shot him first within the chest after which twice extra within the again. The teenager — who was not recognized due to his age — then threatened to shoot Allen’s fiancee, Stephanie Sibounheuang, and stole a number of items of bijou from Allen’s physique earlier than fleeing the restaurant along with his father, in accordance with a prison criticism filed in opposition to the boy weeks after the killing.
After the decision was learn, Allen’s mom, Deannea, instructed Rolling Stone, “I wished to leap up and scream, ‘Hallelujah.’ I’m so completely satisfied it was fast. We received justice for Rakim. I really feel higher figuring out they’ll be in jail for a very long time.”
Trone, 42, repeatedly denied his involvement within the capturing throughout the homicide trial, in accordance with the Related Press.
“I perceive you’re attempting to place collectively your story,” Trone testified throughout cross-examination on Monday. “I by no means had nothing to do with it. I wasn’t there. I didn’t inform no one to do nothing. I didn’t hand no one no gun.”
He testified throughout the trial that he was at Roscoe’s to “drum up” enterprise for his magnificence provide store and purchase marijuana.
Trone was the one protection witness known as to the stand. He admitted that the theft was “heinous” and that his son, who has not been tried but, was “harmful,” in accordance with reporting from the AP.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Timothy Richardson emphasised throughout the trial that even somebody who doesn’t pull the set off might be responsible of felony homicide when they’re a “main participant” who acted with “reckless indifference to human life.”
“A theft is inherently harmful,” Richardson stated. “It’s up shut and private.”
Each males will probably be sentenced on Aug. 27 and {the teenager} is scheduled for a psychological competency proceedings on Aug. 28. One other defendant, Shauntel Trone, pleaded no contest to accent after the actual fact in July and is scheduled to be sentenced in January.
