Eric Holder, the man charged in the fatal shooting of West Coast rapper Nipsey Hussle, was found guilty of first-degree murder.
According to CBS Los Angeles, the jury deliberated for approximately six hours before reaching its verdict.
Hussle, born Ermias Asghedom, was fatally shot outside his Marathon clothing store in Los Angeles in March 2019. He was 33.
“We told you that Mr. Holder Jr. did shoot Mr. Asghedom,” Holder’s attorney, Aaron Jansen, said during closing arguments last week.
“We told you it was voluntary manslaughter and that he acted in a heat of passion. And we told you what that heat of passion that he acted on consisted of — it consisted of being called publicly a snitch by someone as famous as Nipsey Hussle and we believe that is what the evidence showed.”
Holder, 32, was also found guilty of two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter instead of two attempted murder counts as two other men were struck during the shooting.
Prosecutors argued that Holder’s movements leading up to the shooting were far more methodical than his legal team would have the jury believe.
“We have a step-by-step methodically carried out plan to return to that parking lot and kill. It’s not done in the heat of passion, in fact, it’s done 10 minutes after the conversation, in fact, it’s done after he shakes Nipsey Hussle’s hand,” he said,” John McKinney told the jury.
Holder did not react when the verdict was read out in the courtroom.
He is scheduled to be sentenced in September.
