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Legal
Former Rosemond associate admits to Tupac robbery
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 16 June 2011
A former associate of Czar Entertainment chief Jimmy Rosemond has written an open letter to AllHipHop.com admitting to involvement in a 1994 robbery of Tupac Shakur at New York’s Quad Studios, an infamous event in hip hop history that not only resulted in Shakur being shot, but also arguably escalated the feuding between rival hip hop gangs which led to the deaths of both Shakur and rival rapper The Notorious BIG later that decade.
Former Rosemond friend Isaac Dexter, now in jail for unrelated crimes, has been linked to both the 1994 robbery and 1996 murder of Shakur before. In the new letter he admits to involvement in the former, saying Rosemond paid him $2500 to rob Shakur at the New York studio, with the promise he could keep any loot (mainly jewellery) with the exception of one ring, which the Czar chief wanted for his girlfriend.
Dexter writes: “In 1994, James Rosemond hired me to rob Tuac Shakur at the Quad Studio. He gave me $2,500, plus all the jewellery I took, except for one ring, which he wanted for himself. It was the biggest of the two diamond rings that we took. He said he wanted to put the stone in a new setting for his girlfriend at the time, Synthia Ried. I still have as proof the chain that we took that night in the robbery”.
Dexter’s admission, made on the day before what would have been Shakur’s 40th birthday, follows a statement from Rosemond that claimed his former friend was now a police informant, speaking to the authorities from inside prison. According to The Smoking Gun, Rosemond is currently wanted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration and federal marshals in connection with his alleged leadership of a cocaine trafficking ring. Dexter denies speaking to the authorities about those allegations.
Elsewhere in the letter – which can be read in full on AllHipHop.com – Dexter implies he knows more about the murders of Shakur and Biggie in 1996 and 1997 respectively than he has previously been willing to admit, and while he says now is not the time to discuss those crimes, he implies he might do so at some point in the future, simply to give the mothers of the late rappers “some closure”. That may be seen as a veiled threat to Rosemond, who Dexter would presumably implicate as being involved in the Tupac killing.
Dexter also alludes to past claims that Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs was linked to all this as well, and that any future admissions might include allegations about the Bad Boy Entertainment chief. He ponders: “Mr Rosemond, I ask you: Are you going to flip on Puffy when the feds get you? To save yourself like you have done in the past? Because that’s what a rat does. So in closing, we shall see who the rat is, in the near future”.
The Wall Street Journal says that the NYPD have confirmed to them they are investigating Dexter’s new claims and may well interview him about them. Of course, many parties linked to this long running saga will probably doubt Dexter’s reliability as a witness, but, with attention already refocused on Tupac and his sorry demise during what would have been his birthday week, the former Rosemond ally’s admission is certainly well timed for maximum exposure.
Read Isaac’s letter here.
