This past March marked three years since Nipsey Hussle was tragically killed outside of his Marathon store on Crenshaw and Slauson. Eric Holder, the man accused of killing Nipsey, was arrested two days after the shooting and charged with 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. Holder pled not guilty to all of the aforementioned charges as he continued to await trial, but that wait proved to be longer than expected as the trial’s start date was repeatedly delayed.
Finally, things got underway today and during the opening statements, the prosecution, led by Deputy District Attorney John McKinney, alleged that Holder’s shooting of Nipsey was “premeditated and deliberate.” “You’re going to hear and see evidence that he had plenty of opportunity to think about what he was going to do before he did it,” McKinney said according to Rolling Stone. “From the time he got out of the car and all the way back to that strip mall and walked up to those gentlemen and started shooting and shooting and shooting.”
Holder’s lawyer Aaron Jansen denies the claim that the shooting was premeditated and deliberate. However, McKinney looked to prove that this was false as he played a black-and-white video of the shooting in court on Wednesday. It showed Nipsey and Holder’s initial interactions, Holder leaving and then returning to fire gunshots at Nipsey and two others.
“You’ll see him retreat back after a few shots, and then he goes back and he shoots some more, and he retreats back, and then he goes back, and he shoots even more,” McKinney told the jury.
Opening statements were delivered hours after a full jury and six alternate jurors were selected for the trial.
You can read the full report from Rolling Stone here.
Nipsey Hussle is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.