The murder case against former rap mogul Suge Knight is now set to go to trial Sept. 24, and his latest attorney seemed confident this week about staying on board.
Knight, whose 53rd birthday was last Thursday, has been jailed since his arrest in January 2015 and has hired and fired a series of attorneys to handle three separate pending cases in two downtown courtrooms.
The most serious charges against Knight are for murder, attempted murder and hit-and-run for using a pickup truck to allegedly run down 55-year-old Terry Carter and Cle “Bone’’ Sloan in the parking lot of Tam’s Burgers in the 1200 block of West Rosecrans Avenue on Jan. 29, 2015. Carter died and Sloan survived his injuries.
Defense attorney Albert DeBlanc Jr. is now representing Knight in that case and two others: an alleged robbery involving the theft of a camera from a female paparazzo who Knight accused of taking photos of his son in September 2014 and alleged criminal threats against F. Gary Gray, the director of the N.W.A. biopic “Straight Outta Compton,’’ in August 2014.
Asked outside court if he thought he would remain Knight’s attorney through the murder trial, DeBlanc first joked, saying if he could make those kind of predictions, “I’d be playing the stock market,’’ but then turned serious and said, “I believe so.’’
DeBlanc was appointed in late March to represent the former Death Row Records CEO.
Two of Knight’s former attorneys are facing legal troubles of their own, fighting charges by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office that they conspired to bribe potential witnesses and obstruct justice in the murder case.
Attorneys Matthew Fletcher and Thaddeus Culpepper have denied any wrongdoing.
Knight, who has been treated for various health problems while in custody, told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Craig Richman on Monday morning that he felt “good’’ and the two briefly talked sports.
Richman said Knight had correctly predicted that the Philadelphia Eagles would win the Super Bowl and the judge asked for his pick for the NBA championship.
“Houston,’’ Knight said.
“All right, good bet,’’ Richman said, joking that TMZ had wanted to know.
A pretrial date of May 15 was set for all three cases.
