Eric Holder, the man accused of shooting and killing Nipsey Hussle in March of 2019, will finally go on trial in June, according to HipHopDX via the Los Angeles Criminal Court website. Before that, a pretrial readiness hearing has been set for May 19 in which the defense and prosecution will determine whether or not to resolve the case without going to trial. Holder has pled not guilty to one count of murder, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and one count of felony possession of a firearm.
The trial has been delayed multiple times, with the first occurring in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, in May 2021, Holder reportedly refused to leave his cell, and then, two months later, both the assigned judge and Holder’s original defense needed to be replaced (the judge due to retirement, the attorney due to death threats against his family). The most recent delay was earlier this year, after the trial was scheduled to begin in January.
Holder was arrested just two days after the shooting in the Los Angeles County suburb Bellflower. Police said that the shooting was motivated by a personal disagreement in front of Nipsey’s Marathon store on Crenshaw and Slauson. A security video allegedly shows the agitated Holder walking up and firing on Nipsey, hitting him and two bystanders multiple times. Nipsey was pronounced dead at the hospital just hours later, leaving the hip-hop world to mourn his loss just as he was finally receiving the mainstream success he’d worked for a decade to get.
The new trial date is June 2, 2022.