A jury has convicted Eric Holder Jr, a former acquaintance of Nipsey Hussle, for the murder of the beloved L.A rapper.
The 33-year-old rapper was shot dead outside his clothing store in Los Angeles in 2019.
Hussle’s slaying was described in graphic detail during the trial. The murder occurred on March 31 that year and was partially caught on a surveillance camera.
Eric R. Holder Jr. guilty of first-degree murder
On the second day of deliberations, it would take the jury less than an hour to find Holder guilty of first-degree murder.
At trial, prosecutor John McKinney described Hussle and 32-year-old Holder as two young men who grew up in the same neighborhood and represented the same gang but chose two different paths in life.
The Victory Lap rapper invested in the Crenshaw commercial district to provide opportunities in his neighborhood.
Mckinney said Holder felt disrespected by the Grammy-winning rapper during a brief conversation in front of his Marathon clothing store.
However, he argued that Holder, an unsuccessful rapper, was motivated by jealousy rather than their talk.
Holder being the gunman, was not in dispute due to multiple eyewitnesses identifying him and the surveillance footage of a man fitting his description.
He pointed two handguns at Hussle, hitting the rapper at least 10 times before kicking him in the head and fleeing from the scene.
Prosecutors argued that Holder had time to think about killing Hussle as he returned to a car after their conversation, loaded his two guns, and ate some food before he went through the backside parking lot to confront the rapper with a hail of gunfire.
Holder’s lawyer argued that the shooting was not premeditated
Holder’s lawyer Aaron Jansen, a public defender, argued that his defendant was “so enraged” over the allegations of snitching that he returned nine minutes later to kill the rapper without premeditation.
He has argued that Holder acted in “heated passion” and should have been charged with voluntary manslaughter rather than first-degree murder.
Jansen had some success with his argument that Holder did not mean to shoot the bystanders, Kerry Lathan and Shermi Villanueva, for which he faced two attempted murder charges.
The jury convicted Holder of the lesser charges of two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter, per NBC News.
Holder faces a possible sentence of life in prison. He will be sentenced on September 15.