Pop Smoke – One Of The Four Men Charged In His Murder, Sentenced To Four Years In Juvenile Facility
Pop Smoke – One Of The Four Men Charged In His Murder, Sentenced To Four Years In Juvenile Facility
One of the four men charged in the murder of rapper Pop Smoke has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and home invasion robbery.
The 20-year-old man, who was 17 when the killing occurred, was sentenced to four years and two months in a juvenile facility. The judge is keeping his identity a secret because he was a minor at the time of the shooting. The judge declined to apply the two years and eight months he has already spent in juvenile hall toward his sentence.
Three other men are charged with Pop Smoke’s death. Corey Walker, Keandre Rodgers, and one male–whose name is being withheld because he was 15 years old at the time of the shooting–still face murder charges.
The New York rapper was killed on Feb. 19, 2020, at a rented home where he was staying while on a four-day trip to Los Angeles. Pop Smoke was in the shower when masked robbers entered the home and confronted him. Following a struggle, one attacker, who was 15, pistol-whipped the rapper and shot him three times in the back.
According to authorities, the robbers knew the address because a day prior, Pop Smoke (born Bashar Barakah Jackson) had posted a photo on social media of a gift bag he had received and the address was on a label. The assailants stole Pop Smoke’s diamond-studded Rolex watch and sold it for $2,000, a detective testified at the hearing.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Hilary Williams told a judge at a hearing in August that the defendant who pleaded guilty was no minor participant in the crime. He allegedly scouted the mansion, helped Walker recruit three other juveniles to rob Pop Smoke and, after entering the home, remained in “constant communication” with Walker, who waited in the getaway car.
The three remaining defendants are due in a Los Angeles courtroom for a pretrial hearing scheduled for May 5.
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