Post by X on Mar 9, 2014 21:35:44 GMT -8
HIP HOP CULTURE
A deadlocked jury decision will mean the murder-for-hire trial can be retried by Federal prosecutors.
With possible maximum sentences of life in prison or the death penalty, the Jimmy Henchman murder-for-hire trial that began in early February has ended in a deadlocked jury according to XXL.
James Rosemond, commonly referred to as Jimmy Henchman is the former CEO of Czar Entertainment, a management company that counted Hip Hop artists like The Game, Akon, and Gucci Mane as clients. Henchman is currently serving a life sentence for a drug trafficking and narcotics conspiracy conviction he received in October of 2013.
The murder-for-trial case, which the Federal Government can retry following the jury’s lack of an agreed upon verdict, stems from the 2009 killing of G-Unit affiliate Lowell “Lodi Mack” Fletcher.
Fletcher was convicted of assaulting Henchman’s teenage son in Manhattan and served two years in prison for the crime. Shortly following his release in 2009, “Lodi Mack” was shot and killed in the Bronx, allegedly in retribution for the assault of Henchman’s son. XXL’s story reports that “the [trial’s] prosecution painted the killing as part of a years-long ‘blood feud’ between Czar Entertainment and G-Unit.” Earlier this week, details on the trial’s witness testimonials emerged as reported by HipHopDX. One witness claimed that the currently incarcerated CEO hired gunmen to shoot at Tony Yayo’s Bentley and also admitted to orchestrating a hit on Fletcher. Another witness, Brian McCleod, informed the jury that he was offered $30,000 by Henchman, who McCleod says expressed interest in killing Fletcher himself, to ambush the G-Unit affiliate. Along with Rodney Johnson, McCleod was convicted in the shooting of Fletcher in 2011.
Henchman’s attorney, J. Bruce Maffeo, issued a statement to XXL on the verdict. “Hung jury on all counts as to both defendants,” Maffeo wrote. “Both sides need some time to reevaluate their options although this was the government’s case to lose.”
Rodney Johnson was also listed as a co-defendant in the case. Prosecutors allege that Henchman conspired to murder “Lodi Mack” in direct retaliation for the G-Unit affiliate’s slapping his 14 year old son. XXL also reports that Henchman and Johnson’s defense “focused on poking holes in the credibility of the Government’s four key cooperating witnesses, whom they painted as ‘career criminals’ cooperating for the sake of reducing their own prison sentences.”
The official result of the hung jury is a mistrial. The nearly month-long trial began on February 10.
A deadlocked jury decision will mean the murder-for-hire trial can be retried by Federal prosecutors.
With possible maximum sentences of life in prison or the death penalty, the Jimmy Henchman murder-for-hire trial that began in early February has ended in a deadlocked jury according to XXL.
James Rosemond, commonly referred to as Jimmy Henchman is the former CEO of Czar Entertainment, a management company that counted Hip Hop artists like The Game, Akon, and Gucci Mane as clients. Henchman is currently serving a life sentence for a drug trafficking and narcotics conspiracy conviction he received in October of 2013.
The murder-for-trial case, which the Federal Government can retry following the jury’s lack of an agreed upon verdict, stems from the 2009 killing of G-Unit affiliate Lowell “Lodi Mack” Fletcher.
Fletcher was convicted of assaulting Henchman’s teenage son in Manhattan and served two years in prison for the crime. Shortly following his release in 2009, “Lodi Mack” was shot and killed in the Bronx, allegedly in retribution for the assault of Henchman’s son. XXL’s story reports that “the [trial’s] prosecution painted the killing as part of a years-long ‘blood feud’ between Czar Entertainment and G-Unit.” Earlier this week, details on the trial’s witness testimonials emerged as reported by HipHopDX. One witness claimed that the currently incarcerated CEO hired gunmen to shoot at Tony Yayo’s Bentley and also admitted to orchestrating a hit on Fletcher. Another witness, Brian McCleod, informed the jury that he was offered $30,000 by Henchman, who McCleod says expressed interest in killing Fletcher himself, to ambush the G-Unit affiliate. Along with Rodney Johnson, McCleod was convicted in the shooting of Fletcher in 2011.
Henchman’s attorney, J. Bruce Maffeo, issued a statement to XXL on the verdict. “Hung jury on all counts as to both defendants,” Maffeo wrote. “Both sides need some time to reevaluate their options although this was the government’s case to lose.”
Rodney Johnson was also listed as a co-defendant in the case. Prosecutors allege that Henchman conspired to murder “Lodi Mack” in direct retaliation for the G-Unit affiliate’s slapping his 14 year old son. XXL also reports that Henchman and Johnson’s defense “focused on poking holes in the credibility of the Government’s four key cooperating witnesses, whom they painted as ‘career criminals’ cooperating for the sake of reducing their own prison sentences.”
The official result of the hung jury is a mistrial. The nearly month-long trial began on February 10.
