Nipsey Hussle

Case background and investigation

Ermias Joseph Asghedom, the Grammy-nominated rapper known as Nipsey Hussle, was 33 when he was shot outside Marathon Clothing, the store he founded in the 3400 block of West Slauson Avenue in the Hyde Park area of South Los Angeles. According to CBS Los Angeles, the shooting happened at about 3:20 p.m. on March 31, 2019. Two other men were wounded and survived.

Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said at the time that the gunman had approached Hussle and others several times and spoken with them, left, and then came back with a handgun and fired repeatedly. Moore described the shooting as the result of a personal dispute between the two men, according to CBS Los Angeles. The gunman left in a car driven by a woman.

On April 2, 2019, acting on a tip from a member of the public, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies detained Eric R. Holder Jr., then 29, on Artesia Boulevard in Bellflower, and LAPD detectives confirmed his identity, CBS Los Angeles reported. Thousands attended a memorial service for Hussle later that month, according to FOX 11.

At trial, prosecutors described the killing as calculated, saying Holder had time to premeditate before returning to the parking lot near Slauson Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard, where Hussle was hit 10 to 11 times, according to FOX 11. The two men had known each other since growing up in the neighborhood, and the shooting followed a conversation about rumors that Holder had been an informant. His defense argued that being called a snitch by Hussle provoked a heat-of-passion killing rather than premeditated murder.

On July 6, 2022, a Los Angeles County jury convicted Holder of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter, two counts of assault with a firearm and possession of a firearm by a felon, according to ABC News and the Associated Press. He was acquitted of attempted murder of the two wounded men. In December 2022 Superior Court Judge H. Clay Jacke II denied defense motions to reduce the conviction or grant a new trial.

On February 22, 2023, Judge Jacke sentenced Holder to 60 years to life in prison: 25 years to life for the murder, 25 years for a firearm enhancement and 10 years for assault with a firearm, according to the Associated Press. The judge said the sentence weighed Holder's documented mental health history against the harm done to the victims and their families.