A man convicted of ordering his teenage son to murder a rapper and steal his jewellery at a Los Angeles restaurant has been jailed for 31 years to life.
Freddie Lee Trone, 42, was convicted last month of one count of murder, two counts of robbery, and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery after sending his 17-year-old son to rob and kill PnB Rock.
The boy, who is unfit for trial according to a judge, walked into Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles in South Los Angeles, a venue popular with celebrities, in September 2022, where he fatally shot the 30-year-old artist and took his jewellery.
The Philadelphia hip-hop star, whose real name was Rakim Hasheem Allen, was eating with Stephanie Sibounheuang, his fiancee and the mother of his four-year-old daughter.
The gunman, wearing a ski mask, opened fire on Allen, seconds after shouting: “If you don’t give me the jewellery, I’m going to blow her head off,” Rolling Stone said.
Ms Sibounheuang told the court Allen “threw” her under the table when the gunfire began. Allen was shot once in the chest and twice in the back, a post mortem found.
Prosecutors alleged he was acting on his father’s orders, while Trone’s defence team, which plans to appeal, said the older man was only an accessory after the fact.
Trone, who was a member of a South Los Angeles gang, according to NBC, Sky’s US partner, was sentenced at Compton Courthouse in the city on Monday.
PnB Rock had worked with Ed Sheeran. Pic: AP
District attorney George Gascon said Allen’s life “was cut short by an act of violence that no family should have to endure”.
Deannea Allen, the rapper’s mother, quoted by Rolling Stone, said in court that she couldn’t grasp how a parent could “directly put their child in danger”, adding that her son’s murder “has ruined many lives”.
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Trone’s now 19-year-old son, who was not named at the time of the killing because of his age, was also charged with murder but is in juvenile custody after a judge decided he is not currently competent to stand trial.
PnB Rock was best known for his 2016 hit Selfish and for guest appearances on other artists’ songs such as YFN Lucci’s Everyday We Lit and Ed Sheeran’s Cross Me, with Chance The Rapper.
Trone’s co-defendant Tremont Jones, 46, was jailed for 12 years for two counts of robbery and one count of conspiracy.