As former rap music mogul Suge Knight awaits his trial for murder, prosecutors are alleging he tried to buy witnesses. According to the New York Daily News, prosecutors in Knight’s murder case filed paperwork claiming that he and his lawyer, Matt Fletcher, were recorded during a phone call from jail in March 2015.
During that call, prosecutors allege that Knight and Fletcher were discussing paying witnesses to say that Knight was a victim of an armed assault in the 2015 killing of Terry Carter and injury of another man when he ran them over with his truck. According to the DA’s paperwork, Fletcher allegedly stated: “That’s a fair motherf—ing investment, you know, 20, 25 thousand dollars to pay to these motherf—ers to get home?”
According to the New York Daily News, Fletcher stated he was not referring to witnesses but to members of a biker group who reportedly had cellphone video related to the parking lot confrontation. He told the media outlet that the video footage could be worth a significant amount of money to media outlets. He is quoted as stating “We were sending people out to try to find versions of the videotape. It would be a wonderful investment. TMZ would pay them. Radar would pay them.”
Because Knight and Fletcher were on a conference call with Knight’s business partner Mark Blankenship, lawyer-client confidentiality was broken. This allowed the prosecution to gather evidence that included Knight selling surveillance camera footage of the killing to TMZ for $55K, violating a court order.
In addition, it was revealed that a jailhouse informant was used to lure Knight into talking. According to the informant, Knight allegedly offered him money in exchange for his testimony that he saw the killing take place. Fletcher has denied any wrongdoing and stated that he doubts Knight has the money to pay anybody.
