COMPTON, Calif. — Both defendants in the murder trial of Philadelphia hip-hop star PnB Rock agree that a 17-year-old boy walked into the South Los Angeles restaurant Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles and shot the rapper twice in the back and once in the chest.
Both sides agree that the boy’s father, Freddie Trone, a defendant in the trial, helped his son after the shooting and tried to cover up the killing.
But in closing arguments in the two-week trial scheduled for Monday in a Compton, California, courtroom, prosecutors are expected to argue that Trone sent the boy with a gun and orders him to rob PnB Rocks at the restaurant.
The 30-year-old rapper was out dining with his fiancée, who is the mother of his 4-year-old daughter.
Trong’s lawyers said he was entirely innocent of the murder charges and stressed that he was not at the restaurant or pulled the trigger. He said the evidence showed his son acted alone.
Trone’s son is being held under the county’s juvenile justice system, and a judge has ruled he is not currently competent to stand trial.
The Associated Press generally does not publish the names of minors accused of crimes.
PnB Rock, whose real name is Rakim Allen, is best known for his 2016 hit “Selfish” and guest appearances on other artists’ songs, including YFN Lucci’s “Everyday We Lit” and Ed Sheeran and Chance the Rapper’s “Cross Me.”
His murder trial drew little attention because it was not held in the downtown courthouse where most high-profile trials are held. The gallery seats remained mostly empty. Rolling Stone The only media Regular coverage.
FBI agents arrested Tronn in Las Vegas more than two weeks after the Las Vegas shooting on Sept. 12, 2022. Tronn has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder, two counts of second-degree robbery and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery.
Co-defendant Tremont Jones, 46, who is not charged with murder, pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery, one count of conspiracy and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Prosecutors allege Jones tipped off Trone to the rapper’s location and showed jurors surveillance footage of the two talking outside a restaurant minutes before the killing.
Mr Allen’s fiancée, Stephanie Sibunhean, was the trial’s most dramatic witness.
She said she had a “bad feeling” about the situation even before she entered the restaurant.
The couple planned to return to their home in Atlanta later that day.
She testified in tears, saying that shortly after the couple dined at Roscoe’s, a gunman wearing a ski mask appeared, pointed a gun at Allen’s face and demanded hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry.
He was like a kid who “didn’t know what he was doing,” Sibunjuan said.
She said the gunman then opened fire on Allen, who she said shoved her away to protect himself and was shot himself. She called Allen a “hero” who saved her life.
The masked gunmen then retrieved a watch and other jewelry from Allen.
Surveillance camera footage showed the man fleeing the building about a minute after entering.
Sibunheang, as well as the first officers on the scene, applied pressure to Mr Allen’s wound to try to stop the bleeding, but he was later pronounced dead.
The autopsy report said Allen was shot once in the chest and twice in the back.
Investigators said they determined Allen had a gun at the time but did not draw it before he was shot.
Sibunjuan testified that he posted a photo of the couple dining together on Instagram shortly before the shooting, but removed the tags indicating which of six Roscoe’s locations in Southern California they had eaten at.
Authorities initially said the post may have led to the robbery and shooting but later retracted that statement, instead accusing Jones of leading Trone and his son to the restaurant.
Security camera footage taken later that day showed Trong and his son entering the apartment, and then his son leaving a short time later wearing different clothes and carrying a garbage bag.
Prosecutors allege Trone set the getaway car on fire a few blocks from his home as part of a cover-up.
Shawntelle Trong, Trong’s wife and the boy’s stepmother, arrested Shortly after the shooting, and shortly before her trial, she denied being an accessory after the fact.
