Suge Knight enters plea, is hospitalized
COMPTON, Calif. — Former rap music mogul Suge Knight pleaded innocent Tuesday to murder and attempted murder charges before complaining of chest pain and being rushed to a hospital.
No further information about his condition was immediately available, Los Angeles County sheriff’s officer John Gardner said.
Knight’s attorney, David Kenner, said he was on the way to the hospital to see his client but had no further details.
On Tuesday morning, Knight entered innocent pleas to four felonies, including hitand-run charges, filed after the Death Row Records founder reportedly struck two men with his pickup last week.
The 49-year-old could face life in prison if convicted.
Knight is accused of intentionally running down two men in Compton on Thursday. Knight’s attorneys have said he hit the men by accident as he fled an attack.
Knight is charged with killing Terry Carter, 55, and attempting to kill Cle “Bone” Sloan, 51, in a burger-stand parking lot after an argument occurred at a separate site where a movie about the rise of the rap group N.W.A. was being filmed.
Authorities said Knight visited the set for Straight Outta Compton and argued with Sloan, an actor and film consultant. A short time later, the argument resumed in a parking lot a few miles away where Knight and Sloan exchanged punches through a window of the pickup before the two men were run down, authorities said.
Knight’s former attorney James Blatt said Knight was attacked by four people, including Sloan, as he pulled into the lot after Carter, a friend of Knight’s, requested he show up for a meeting. Blatt said Knight hit the gas as he fled in fear.
Kenner said his client is remorseful about Carter’s death but that does not mean he’s guilty of the crimes.
“He feels bad that somebody that he knew is deceased,” Kenner said. “It’s not his fault.”
Michael Shapiro, an attorney who represents Sloan, said his client has a mangled left foot and some neurological problems and is recovering from his injuries under heavy security.
Knight was at the center of one of the most notorious rap conflicts of the 1990s, pitting Tupac Shakur against Biggie Smalls in an East Coast-West Coast rivalry. Knight was sent to prison for nearly five years for badly beating a rival with Shakur at a Las Vegas hotel just hours before Shakur was fatally shot while riding in Knight’s car in 1996.
Knight is due back in court Monday when a judge will consider whether to set bail.