The man convicted of murdering rapper Nipsey Hussle has been sentenced to 60 years in prison.
Last July, Eric R Holder Jr was found guilty of the first-degree murder of the American rapper, after shooting him outside his Marathon clothing store in California on March 31, 2019.
Hussle – real name Ermias Asghedom – was 33.
Holder, 33, was also convicted of two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter and two counts of assault with a firearm for gunfire that hit two other men at the scene who survived.
On Wednesday, Superior Court Judge H. Clay Jacke handed down the sentence in Los Angeles following heartfelt statements from one of Hussle’s friends and the late musician’s father.
Holder did not react to the sentencing and stared straight ahead during the court proceedings, according to AP.
At the sentencing, Hussle’s friend Herman ‘Cowboy’ Douglas, who was beside him during the shooting, delivered an emotional statement explaining how the rapper’s death had been a huge loss for him personally and the local community, where Hussle was a business leader and inspiration.
Douglas said: ‘Nipsey was my friend, he was like a son, he was like a dad. Our community right now, we lost everything, everything we worked for. One man’s mistake, one man’s action, messed up a whole community.’
He then told the judge: ‘I don’t care what you give this guy. It ain’t about the time. I just want to know why. The world wants to know why. Why someone would do that?’
Hussle’s partner and actress Lauren London, who is mother of his son Kross, did not attend the hearing or any part of the trial.
The Grammy-nominated rapper knew Holder for many years as the two were members of the Rollin’ 60s in South LA while growing up. However, Holder did not achieve the same level of success as Hussle did in later years.
During the trial, Holder’s legal team had argued that he was being over-charged and had said the killing was not pre-meditated and that he should instead be charged with voluntary manslaughter.
However, prosecutors successfully argued that Holder had made the decision to kill Hussle, returning to a car nine minutes after a conversation with Hussle, and then going to confront the rapper.
Witnesses claimed their conversation was casual, but prosecutors argued that Hussle repeated rumours that Holder had ‘snitched’ back to him.
Hussle was shot multiple times while he stood outside the Marathon clothing store he owned in south Crenshaw, Los Angeles.
CCTV footage showed a man approaching Hussle and his friends with guns before opening fire. The rapper was reportedly shot up to 10 times including the head, lungs, and spine.
He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Hussle was a popular rapper and released his debut album, Victory Lap, a year before his death. The album earned a Grammy nomination for best rap album, with the ceremony taking place just weeks before his death.
In 2020, Hussle received two posthumous Grammys for his songs Racks In The Middle and Higher.
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