This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Business News Legal
Suge Knight sentenced to 28 years in prison
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 5 October 2018
One time hip hop mogul Suge Knight was formally sentenced over the death of Terry Carter yesterday. As expected, he was handed 28 years in prison.
The sentence comes at the end of a long-running criminal case over the 2015 death of Carter, who Knight ran over with his vehicle following an altercation outside a burger bar in LA, near where a trailer was being filmed for the NWA biopic ‘Straight Outta Compton’. The criminal action was brought to an end when Knight agreed to a plea deal last month, pleading ‘no contest’ to a charge of voluntary manslaughter, rather than murder.
Knight seemingly had an initial run in with another man, Cle Sloan, on the ‘Straight Outta Compton’ set, after he showed up there reportedly to complain about his portrayal in the movie. When the altercation moved to the burger bar car park, Sloan was joined by Carter. Knight ran over both men and drove away. Carter later died as a result of his injuries.
There were many delays in the legal proceedings, thanks to the circus surrounding Knight’s fighting of the murder charge. He went through numerous lawyers in the process, two of whom were charged over allegations of misconduct. Jury selection was due to begin last month but was called off after Knight reached his plea deal.
At yesterday’s hearing, several of Carter’s family members read out statements. “You’re unrepentant”, Carter’s daughter Crystal told him. “Your callous actions took my dad’s life away”. Addressing the judge, she added: “He is truly a disgusting, selfish disgrace to the human species. He murdered my dad in cold blood and is a menace to society”.
The maximum penalty for voluntary manslaughter in California is eleven years, but this was doubled under the state’s three-strikes law. An additional five years were added because the conviction is for a serious and violent felony, and another one year was added for Knight’s use of his truck as a deadly weapon, bringing the sentence to 28 years in total.
