Defendant Eric Holder listens during opening statements in his murder trial, Wednesday, June 15, 2022, at Los Angeles Superior Court in Los Angeles. Holder, 32, faces one count of first degree-murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder for the killing the Grammy Award-winning rapper Nipsey Hussle outside his clothing store three years ago. (Frederick M. Brown/Daily Mail.com via AP, Pool)
Associated Press
FILE – Rapper Nipsey Hussle attends an NBA basketball game between the Golden State Warriors and the Milwaukee Bucks in Oakland, Calif., March 29, 2018. Three years after rapper Hussle was gunned down outside a Los Angeles clothing store that he founded to help revitalize the neighborhood where he grew up, a trial will finally begin Wednesday, June 15, 2022, for the man charged with killing him.
Associated Press
Defense attorney Aaron Jenson speaks during opening statement during Eric Holder murder trial at Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, June 15, 2022 in Los Angeles. A Los Angeles prosecutor says the killing of Nipsey Hussle was premeditated by a man charged with fatally shooting the Grammy Award-winning rapper outside his clothing store three years ago. (Frederick M. Brown/Daily Mail.com via AP, Pool)
Associated Press
Deputy D.A. John McKinney speaks in opening statements during the Eric Holder, murder trial on Wednesday, June 15, 2022 in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles prosecutor says the killing of Nipsey Hussle was premeditated by Holder Jr., charged with fatally shooting the Grammy Award-winning rapper outside his clothing store three years ago. McKinney told jurors during opening statements. (Frederick M. Brown/Daily Mail.com via AP, Pool)
Associated Press
Defendant Eric Holder listens during opening statements in his murder trial, Wednesday, June 15, 2022, at Los Angeles Superior Court in Los Angeles. Holder, 32, faces one count of first degree-murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder for the killing the Grammy Award-winning rapper Nipsey Hussle outside his clothing store three years ago. (Frederick M. Brown/Daily Mail.com via AP, Pool)
Associated Press
Judge H. Clay Jacke listens during the Eric Holder murder trial on Wednesday, June 15, 2022 in Los Angeles. A Los Angeles prosecutor says the killing of Nipsey Hussle was premeditated by a man charged with fatally shooting the Grammy Award-winning rapper outside his clothing store three years ago. (Frederick M. Brown/Daily Mail.com via AP, Pool)
Associated Press
Defendant Eric Holder, right, and his attorney Aaron Jansen listen during opening statements in Holder’s murder trial, Wednesday, June 15, 2022, at Los Angeles Superior Court in Los Angeles. Holder, 32, faces one count of first degree-murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder for the killing the Grammy Award-winning rapper Nipsey Hussle outside his clothing store three years ago. (Frederick M. Brown/Daily Mail.com via AP, Pool)
Associated Press
Defendant Eric Holder and his attorney Aaron Jansen, right, listen during opening statements in Holder’s murder trial, Wednesday, June 15, 2022, at Los Angeles Superior Court in Los Angeles. Holder, 32, faces one count of first degree-murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder for the killing the Grammy Award-winning rapper Nipsey Hussle outside his clothing store three years ago. (Frederick M. Brown/Daily Mail.com via AP, Pool)
Associated Press
Eric Holder, left looks on with his attorney during closing arguments at his trial for the 2019 first-degree murder of the 33-year-old hip-hop star Nipsey Hussle on Thursday, June 30, 2022, in Los Angeles. (Frederic J. Brown/Pool Photo via AP)
Associated Press
Eric Holder, right, looks on, while seated beside his attorney Aaron Jensen, during closing arguments at his trial on Thursday, June 30, 2022, in Los Angeles. (Frederic J. Brown/Pool Photo via AP)
Associated Press
Eric Holder, center, looks on, while seated beside his attorney Aaron Jensen, left, during closing arguments at his trial on Thursday, June 30, 2022, in Los Angeles over the death of Grammy-winning rapper Nipsey Hussle. (Frederic J. Brown/Pool Photo via AP)
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Jurors found a 32-year-old man guilty of first-degree murder Wednesday for the 2019 fatal shooting of rapper Nipsey Hussle.
The Los Angeles County jury also found Eric R. Holder Jr. guilty of two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter instead of two attempted murder counts as prosecutors had sought for two other men who were hit by gunfire at the scene.
Holder, wearing a blue suit and face mask, stood up in the small court room next to his lawyer as the verdict was read. He had no visible reaction.
Jurors deliberated for about six hours over two days before reaching the verdict.
The verdict brings an end to a legal saga that has lasted more than three years and a trial that was often delayed because of the pandemic.
Holder and Hussle had known each other for years – they grew up members of the same South Los Angeles street gang – when a chance meeting outside the rapper’s Los Angeles clothing store led to the shooting, and his death.
The evidence against Holder was overwhelming, from eyewitnesses to surveillance cameras from local businesses that captured his arrival, the shooting and his departure.
His attorney did not even deny that he was the shooter but urged jurors to find him guilty of the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.
The shooting followed a conversation the two men had about rumors that Holder had been acting as an informant for authorities. Holder’s lawyer Aaron Jansen said that being publicly accused of being a ‘snitch’ by a person as prominent as Hussle brought on a ‘heat of passion’ in Holder that made him not guilty of first-degree murder.
‘This is a provocation that stirs up rage and powerful emotion,” Jansen told jurors Thursday.
Deputy District Attorney John McKinney argued during the trial that Holder and everyone else in the conversation that preceded Hussle’s death were so calm that the ‘snitching’ conversation could not have been the primary motive, and that Holder must have had some previous envy or hatred for Hussle.
McKinney told jurors that the nine minutes between the conversation and the shooting allowed more than enough time for the killing to be premeditated, a requirement for first-degree murder.
The jury apparently agreed.
Hussle, whose legal name is Ermias Asghedom, died at age 33. He had just released his major-label debut album, which earned him his first Grammy nomination, when he was gunned down.
He was a widely beloved figure in Los Angeles, especially in the South LA area where he grew up and remained after gaining fame, buying property and opening businesses.
‘He wanted to change the neighborhood,” McKinney said in his closing argument. “He kept the same friends. And the neighborhood loved him. They called him Neighborhood Nip.’
Hussle was mourned at a memorial at the arena then known as Staples Center, and celebrated in a performance at the Grammy Awards that included D.J. Khaled and John Legend.
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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton