Fallen rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight agreed in court Thursday to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the death of a friend near a promotional video shoot for the movie "Straight Outta Compton"
The agreement means prosecutors will recommend he serve 28 years behind bars. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for Oct. 4.
Knight, 53, had faced a murder charge and has been in jail since turning himself in shortly after the Jan. 29, 2015, collision in which his red Ford Raptor pickup plowed into Terry Carter, 55, and 51-year-old Cle "Bone" Sloan, a technical adviser on the movie, who survived.
The bloodshed took place outside Tam's Burgers stand in Compton as filming for a promotional video for the N.W.A. biopic had been underway nearby.
Although Knight reportedly counted Carter as a friend, prosecutors contended the collision was deliberate. Knight had a previous confrontation earlier that day with people affiliated with the movie at the promotional video location.
In a 911 phone call about the Tam's collision, a caller said, "The car ran over two guys, there was fighting and then he just pulled back and pulled forward and run 'em over," a woman told the emergency dispatcher in a shaken voice. "Two guys are laying down."
"We tried to follow the truck and we took pictures," she added.
David Kenner, an attorney affiliated with Knight's Death Row Records, said after Knight's arrest that he was not guilty.
On Thursday, Knight requested a new attorney, who would be the 15th in the case.
Knight founded Death Row Records, once the well-known home of N.W.A. member Dr. Dre, as well as Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg.
