A man accused of murdering an up-and-coming rapper who was fatally shot at the Beverly Center last year was found not guilty Friday by a Los Angeles jury.
The trial of Aubrey Berry, an events promoter from Atlanta, revolved in part around the victim’s violent rap lyrics as the defense sought to portray the rapper as a threatening gang member who was shot as he attacked Berry.
As an up-and-coming rapper, Dolla glorified the gang lifestyle, bragging about carrying a pistol and his ability to use it.
“You be running when I shoot, I be shooting where you running,” he rapped in his debut single released in 2008.
Full Story – HERE
The fact that Berry was found not guilty blows my mind. Dolla was shot 3 times in the back, and police never found a gun on him. How the hell can they call Berry’s actions self defense? Sounds more like shoot first ask questions later. The jury must have been so fixated on those rap lyrics that they completely lost sight of the facts.
Comments
10 responses to “Man Accused Of Murdering Rapper Dolla Found Not Guilty”
It’s a marginal case but understandable. Someone projecting an image of packing and using a gun threatens to kill him, he reacts as though they had a gun. Legally, the point isn’t if Dolla HAD a gun only if it was reasonable to BELIEVE he did. The defense attorney was able to use Dolla’s gangsta style as establishing that belief.
Like I mentioned in reply to Josh’s comment, rappers are also actors by nature. I would be very surprised if the prosecution didn’t try to convince the jury of that.
If someone shot a famous Hollywood movie actor because they played a villain in some movies and an all around terrible person, do you think they would have the slightest chance of getting proven not guilty? I doubt it.
One of the stories on this mentioned the name of a song by this “artist” that the defense played for the jury.
He warns that his “aim is so precise that I don’t need a beam.”
He admits to being involved in gang activity – “shorty I’m a gangsta, T-money tell ya dat.”
He brags that he always carries a weapon – “When a nigger ask me if I’m holdin’, it mean, is my pistol on me. Hell yeah. All time.”
The phrase “Good Riddance” comes to mind. For all I know the defendant isn’t much better than this guy though. Maybe in a perfect world they would have shot and killed each other at the same time.
I guess you don’t listen to rap or follow the culture, I do. Lots of these guys have parents who are lawyers and doctors etc. but project the “ghetto” image and talk about how hard they are and what they will do to you if you cross them. Some are legitimately from nothing and made it big on their own hard work. Either way, they talk the talk and walk the walk in order to sell records.
Saying those lines in a song that you quoted I would take with a grain of salt… just like I would also take the fact most of them rap about having hundreds of thousands in jewelery, Bentleys and yachts and houses in other countries etc… Again, some do have all that stuff, but if you don’t and instead you rap about “my 300 sq ft. apartment” and “my silver plated chain” it wouldn’t be as effective in that genre. Bottom line is that those guys are actors too.
I don’t see any reason to distinguish between those who are all talk and those who grew up “on the streets.” Either way, they’re glorifying that lifestyle and they want to portray the image that they are “gansta.” It could probably be argued that the posers are even worse. It said in the articles that the victim, with his “posse,” allegedly were the group that attacked the defendant physically at an earlier date, prior to this shooting.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this guy was nothing but talk. But, maybe if you’re going to “talk the talk” you better be able to “walk the walk” as well. He wanted people to think he was “gangsta”; apparently it worked. The rap “culture” (as you call it) wants to advocate gang violence, gun crime, carrying concealed weapons, etc. I find it hard to be sympathetic when that very culture they advocate, and the “gansta” image they try to portray, ends up being their demise.
your opinion is understandable… but I still find it hard to believe that a jury agreed that shooting someone in the back multiple times, then finding out he wasn’t armed is acceptable. Seems like a dangerous precedent was set.
That’s why I implied that it would have been better if they both shot each other. I don’t think the world needs the benefit of the shooter walking around in it either.
You know, as an afterthought – the precedent that this SHOULD set is that the glorification of gang-style violence only encourages it, and it might come back to bite you in the ass. Sadly, I’m sure that point will be missed in all of this.
Yea I do agree with that. But like I mentioned before, it’s entertainment and it makes those guys incredibly rich. For some reason it seems that people can distinguish movie actor’s roles as being fake, but they can’t comprehend that a musician is actually likely acting too.
Movie actors don’t continue their role off the set, and enough rappers were/are criminals and are known to carry guns. I agree with Josh that this shows the negative side of ‘street cred.’