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Onetime rap mogul Marion 'Suge' Knight sentenced to 28 years for manslaughter

Onetime rap mogul Marion 'Suge' Knight sentenced to 28 years for manslaughter

File photo of Marion Suge Knight

Former rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight was sentenced in a Los Angeles courtroom on Thursday (October 4) to 28 years in prison for manslaughter in the death of a man he ran over with his pickup truck outside a hamburger stand in 2015.

The sentence appeared to forestall any chance of a future recording business comeback for Knight, 53, known as much for repeated run-ins with the law as for his career as a hip-hop executive promoting the likes of Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre and Tupac Shakur during the 1990s.

The co-founder of the influential label Death Row Records pleaded no contest on Sept. 20 to one count of voluntary manslaughter for the hit-and-run killing of 55-year-old Terry Carter.

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He admitted then to using a "deadly and dangerous weapon" on Jan. 29, 2015, when he ran down two men with his pickup truck in an altercation outside Tam's Burgers that spilt over from a quarrel on the nearby set of a TV commercial for the film "Straight Outta Compton."

Carter later died of his injuries. The second man, Cle "Bone" Sloan, was left with a badly mangled left foot and head injuries. Knight, who was out on bail in a robbery case at the time, fled the scene but was later arrested.

Seated beside his lawyer and wearing an orange jail uniform and horned-rimmed glasses, the burly, bald ex-college football player showed no visible emotion as the sentence was pronounced. He did not address the court.

Knight previously served more than half of a nine-year term for violating the probation he received in 1995 for an assault on two aspiring rappers at a Hollywood recording studio.

The probation violation stemmed from a scuffle involving Knight at a Las Vegas hotel in September 1996, hours before Shakur was shot to death while riding in a car with Knight on the Las Vegas Strip. Knight was slightly wounded in the attack.