A date has been confirmed for the trial of the man accused of killing Nipsey Hussle.
Nipsey was shot dead outside his store in South Los Angeles in 2019, and Eric Holder was later arrested and charged with murdering the rapper. A judge has now set his trial for January 5th. The case has previously been delayed on numerous occasions due to the pandemic.
Holder previously installed O.J. Simpson’s former attorney Christopher Darden. However, he has since resigned and has been replaced by Aaron Jansen.
The defendant has pled not guilty to the charges against him, 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.
Prosecutors claim he shot multiple rounds into Hussle from two different handguns at Hussle. Furthermore, it’s alleged that Holder then violently kicked Hussle’s head before fleeing from the scene. LA County Deputy District Attorney John McKinney said the firing happened after Hussle accused Holder of working with police. He then walked away before returning six minutes later and going on a rampage.
Holder’s lawyer, Jansen, told Rolling Stone that Holder is “nervous, but he knows it’s time to get the case moving to trial”. Additionally, he said that Holder had been suffering from “a substantial mental health issue” when the incident happened and was also “off his medication”.
“He does have a significant mental health history,” Jansen previously told the New York Daily News in June. “One of the things affecting him [in March 2019] was that his mother had just passed away. He was pretty despondent.”
