LOS ANGELES (AP) — An attorney for the man on trial for the murder of rapper Nipsey Hussle pressed the woman who says she served as an unintentional escape engine about errors in testimony she gave for the prosecution, and asked her Tuesday if she was lying or just wrong.
Bryannita Nicholson testified Monday that she had no idea her friend Eric Holder knew Hussle when they ran into the hip-hop star outside her Los Angeles clothing store in March 2019, and had no idea Holder had returned to film Hussle while he waited. in his car in a nearby alley before chasing him.
Holder pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder because two bystanders were shot.
The title attorney, Assistant District Attorney Aaron Jansen, did not deny that his consumer was the shooter, but cautioned that there was no prior mediation as required in first-degree prosecution. He said intentional murder is more appropriate.
During his cross-examination of Nicholson on Tuesday, Jansen addressed errors and discrepancies in Nicholson’s testimony in a video recovered from the crime scene and his statements to the government and grand jury in 2019.
The video shown in court contradicts Nicholson’s testimony that Holder got out of his car and ran toward Hussle while they parked in the parking lot. Instead, it shows Holder quietly walking to a nearby place to eat burgers and, a few minutes later, driving. through the parking lot to Hussle.
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“It’s inaccurate, isn’t it? Jansen asked.
“I’m that in the video,” Nicholson replied.
“But weren’t you lying, you just made a mistake?” said Jansen, a line he used several times.
“I was parking at the time, so I didn’t know,” she replied, “I just thought he went to see him first, because he was talking about going to see him to take a picture. “
Surveillance video also showed that a truck in which Holder had put a bag of chili fries on his way back to the mall was white, not red, as Nicholson said in the past.
“You didn’t lie and you said it was a red or burgundy truck, did you?” said Janssen. You just made a mistake. “
His amazement remained well educated and Nicholson remained unperturbed, such mistakes were inevitable in a trial, delayed by the pandemic and other problems, which took so long to arrive.
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“Well, that’s 3 years ago, so I guess I combined the colors,” Nicholson said. “I’m not lying. “
Jansen could not undermine the central elements of Nicholson’s account, but he did his best to drill holes in the reliability of the reminiscence of a key prosecution witness.
Jansen has referred to Nicholson’s immunity agreement, which protects her from any crime similar to shooting, with the exception of perjury.
“You are still fulfilling your agreement, then?” asked after asking Nicholson to report the errors. She said “yes” on the hour.
The prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney John McKinney, had sought to separate the line of defense from questioning by showing Nicholson the videos of his interrogation and making him acknowledge the mistakes.
The defense pointed to discrepancies in Nicholson’s testimony at trial and his testimony before the 2019 grand jury about the verbal exchange he heard between Holder and Hussle about “blowing. “
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When asked in court if Hussle had told Holder to “relax,” she replied “no. “
Jansen read the grand jury transcript, in which Nicholson testified, “Nipsey just like, like, ‘cool’ like ‘no, no,’ so for Eric. “
Jansen made Nicholson recognize that he was close enough to hear the men talking for less than a minute and that he wasn’t paying attention while waiting to take a picture with Hussle, of whom she was a big fan.
He also claimed he had never noticed any symptoms of violence in Holder, he said he “should slap her” when he returned to the car after the shooting and told her to drive.
Hussle, a 33-year-old father of two whose legal name is Ermias Ashgedom, had just been nominated for a Grammy for his debut album on a major label after years of clandestine good fortune when he killed.
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