One of four men charged in the robbery death of rapper Pop Smoke at a Hollywood Hills mansion pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter on Thursday.
The 20-year-old man, who was 17 at the time of the killing, also pleaded guilty to home invasion robbery in Inglewood juvenile court. He received a four-year and two-month sentence in a juvenile facility.
Because he was a minor at the time of the shooting, the judge has barred the public use of his name.
Bashar Barakah Jackson, a 20-year-old New York rapper, was killed on Feb. 19, 2020, at a rented home where he was staying during a four-day trip to Los Angeles. A 911 call from a friend of someone inside the house reported armed intruders, according to police.
Authorities said the robbers knew the address because Jackson had posted a photo on social media a day earlier of a gift bag he had received with the address on a label.
Masked robbers confronted Jackson while he was in the shower. According to court testimony cited by the Los Angeles Times, one of the attackers, who was 15, pistol-whipped the rapper and shot him three times in the back during a struggle.
A detective testified that the attackers stole Jackson’s diamond-studded Rolex watch and sold it for $2,000 on the black market.
The adolescent, whose name is also being withheld, was charged in the case alongside Corey Walker, who was 19 at the time, and Keandre Rodgers, who was 18. They are charged with murder during the course of a robbery and burglary.
Pop Smoke made his rap debut in 2018 with “Welcome to the Party,” a gangsta anthem with boasts about shootings, killings, and drugs that became a huge sensation, prompting Nicki Minaj to drop a verse on a remix.
He had several other hits, including the posthumous album “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon.”
