The man who shot and killed California rapper Nipsey Hussle in cold blood and left him to die in front of the store he opened to help the community has been sentenced to life in prison.
Eric R. Holder Jr. will have to serve 60 years in jail before he is eligible for parole. A judge handed down the hefty sentence more than three years since he shot and killed the rapper in a rage over allegations that he was an informant. According to the LA Times, Holder was sentenced to 25 years to life on the first-degree count, an additional 25 years to life for a sentencing enhancement since a gun was used, and 10 years for the shooting of the innocent bystanders.
Holder Jr. was found guilty by a jury last year of the first-degree murder of the hip-hop artist, but his sentencing was put off until this month. Superior Court Judge H. Clay Jacke II handed down the of-delayed sentence to Eric Holder Jr., who is only 33 years old.
Along with being found guilty of first-degree murder, Holder was also found guilty of two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter and two counts of assault with a firearm after shooting two innocent bystanders when he shot and killed Nipsey Hussle.
Judge Jacke’s sentence was handed down after Nipsey’s close friend Herman ‘Cowboy’ Douglas gave a victim impact statement in court, and a letter from Holder’s father read in court. Despite the lengthy sentence, the judge noted that Holder was not eligible for the death penalty.
Holder’s attorney Aaron Jansen had asked for Holder’s sentencing to be delayed as he moved to get his conviction reduced from first-degree murder to manslaughter or second-degree murder, which was rejected by Judge Jacke.
During the sentencing on Wednesday, Douglas told the court he was standing with Hussle when Holder killed him. Douglas shared that the rapper’s death left a deep void in the South Los Angeles community where Hussle had dedicated himself and his success to building up the community and creating opportunities for the youth.
“Nipsey was my friend, he was like a son, he was like a dad,” he said. “Our community right now, we lost everything, everything we worked for. One man’s mistake, one man’s action, messed up a whole community.”
He continued, “Our community right now, we lost everything. Everything we worked for. … thousands of jobs we don’t have no more. Homies don’t have nothing to do. They backsliding, they robbing people now,” Douglas said. “All our stores are closed down. The whole community relied on Nip.”
Douglas also directly addressed the judge, “I don’t care what you give this guy. It ain’t about the time. I just want to know why. The world wants to know why. Why someone would do that?”
Douglas also broke out into song- “hit the road Jack” after Holder was sentenced, causing the judge and deputies to admonish him and send him out of the room.
Hussle, whose real name is Ermias Asghedom, had grown up with Holder, and the two were also aspiring rappers, but only Nipsey Hussle became successful. Evidence led by the prosecution claimed that Holder shot the rapper about a dozen times, with one shot ripping through his spine. Had he survived, he would have been disabled.
Holder’s attorney had stated that his client did kill the rapper but said that a lesser verdict of voluntary manslaughter was appropriate since Holder reacted in the heat of passion and shot the rapper.
Jansen says his client planned to appeal the verdict.
