Nipsey Hussle killer sentenced to 60 years in prison

On Wednesday, the killer of Los Angeles rapper Nipsey Hussle, Eric R. Holder Jr, was sentenced to at least 60 years of jail for the incident outside Hussle’s clothing store in 2019.

As reported by the Los Angeles Times, at least 25 years of the sentence are for the first-degree murder of the ‘Racks in the Middle’ musician. Another 25 years are an enhancement for using a gun to murder Hussle, and ten years are assault convictions for shooting two other men during the incident.

The incident occurred in March 2019. Court documents and testimonies suggested that Holder shot Hussle at least ten times in front of his Marathon Clothing store, which resulted in a severed spinal cord. He is also said to have kicked Hussle multiple times on the ground. Holder was arrested only two days after the shooting on April 2nd, 2019.

The event was captured on video, with it undoubted that Holder was the gunman when the trial started. Duly, his defence, attorney Aaron Jansen, argued that he should be convicted of manslaughter instead of murder.

Jansen maintained that Holder became incapable of rational thinking after Hussle mentioned the possibility of their being “paperwork” on him. This is slang referring to records suggesting that Holder had cooperated with police.

Originally, Holder was scheduled to be sentenced in September 2022, but it was pushed back to allow Holder’s defence to prepare for court. His trial began in mid-June last year after delays caused by the pandemic and other administrative issues.

Herman Douglas, more commonly known as ‘Cowboy’, was a close friend of Hussle. He said during the sentencing hearing on Wednesday that the murder tore a hole in the community. He explained that those who relied on Hussle for work are now desperate for unemployment; “we lost everything”.

“Our community right now, we lost everything. Everything we worked for. … Thousands of jobs we don’t have no more. Homies don’t have nothing to do. They backsliding, they robbing people now,” Douglas said. “All our stores are closed down. The whole community relied on Nip.”