Conviction in Murder of PnB Rock
On Wednesday, a Los Angeles County jury convicted a man in the shooting death of rapper PnB Rock at a restaurant in 2022.
Freddie Lee Trone, 42, was convicted of various offenses, including murder, conspiracy to commit robbery, and two counts of second-degree robbery involving the rapper and his fiancé, according to the Associated Press.
Co-defendant Tremont Jones, 46, was convicted on two charges of second-degree robbery and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery.
Trone's son, who was 17 at the time of the homicide, is currently being treated to see whether he is mentally fit to stand trial. He is being held in the juvenile justice system.
Shauntel Trone, the teen's stepmother, has pleaded no guilty to accessory after the fact and is expected to be sentenced in January.
PnB Rock, 30, was tragically murdered on September 12, 2022, while eating lunch with his fiancée at a Roscoe's House of Chicken & Waffles on the 100 block of W. Manchester Ave. in South Los Angeles.
Prosecutors claimed Jones informed Freddie Lee Trone that the rapper was in the restaurant wearing pricey jewelry.
Trone then sent his adolescent son into the restaurant to rob the rapper at gunpoint, according to the prosecution.
Shortly after the shooting, authorities said a male suspect approached PnB Rock and his girlfriend, produced a revolver, demanded jewelry, and shot the rapper following an argument. Rock died shortly after being transferred to an area hospital.
The incident was witnessed by startled diners and captured on the restaurant's video camera system.
Freddie Lee Trone escaped to Las Vegas after the shooting. After two weeks on the run, he was apprehended by a task group consisting of FBI agents and police from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and Henderson Police Department.
During the murder trial, Deputy District Attorney Timothy Richardson informed the jury that the motivation for the crime was "about a half million dollars worth of jewelry."
According to the prosecution, Jones fist-bumped the rapper in the restaurant and then informed the elder Trone about the type of jewelry he was wearing.
Defense counsel Winston McKesson argued that Freddie Lee Trone was "not guilty of these charges," and that his teenage son acted independently.
The father took the stand and claimed he was not at the restaurant when the violence occurred.
"I never had nothing to do with it," Trone stated on Monday. "I was not there. I did not tell anyone to do anything. I didn't hand anybody a gun."
After approximately four hours of deliberation, jurors differed and returned a guilty decision.
Trone and Jones' sentencing is slated for August 27 at the Compton courthouse.
PnB Rock was born Rakim Allen and grew up in Philadelphia's Germantown neighborhood. In 2014, he released his first mixtape and signed with Atlantic Records.
The rapper was best known for his 2015 hit "Fleek" and 2016 tune "Selfish," which peaked at No. 51 on the Billboard Hot 100 and received over 65 million views on YouTube. He also appeared on Ed Sheeran's single "Cross Me," alongside Chance the Rapper.
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