COMPTON, Calif. (AP) — Both sides in Philadelphia hip-hop star’s murder trial Rocha PnB agree that a 17-year-old boy entered Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles restaurant in South Los Angeles and shot the rapper twice in the back and once in the chest.
Both agree that the boy’s father, Freddie Trone, a defendant in the trial, helped his son after the shooting and tried to cover up the murder.
But in closing arguments of the two-week trial set for the Compton, Calif., court on Monday, prosecutors will argue that Trone sent the boy to the restaurant with a gun and orders to rob PnB Rock. The 30-year-old rapper was eating with his fiancée, mother of his 4-year-old daughter.
Trone’s attorney maintains that he is not guilty of murder and has emphasized that he was not at the restaurant and did not pull the trigger. He said the evidence points to his son acting alone.
Trone’s son is in the custody of the county’s juvenile justice system and a judge has found he is not competent to stand trial.
The Associated Press generally does not name minors accused of crimes.
PnB Rock, whose legal name is Rakim Allen, was better known for his 2016 hit “Selfish” and for making guest appearances on other artists’ songs, such as YFN Lucci’s “Everyday We Lit” and Ed Sheeran’s “Cross Me” featuring Chance the Rapper.
His murder trial, which was not held in the city center courthouse that houses most of the high-profile cases, attracted little attention. The gallery remained almost empty, with Rolling Stone the only means of communication that gives this regular coverage.
FBI agents arrested Trone in Las Vegas more than two weeks after the September 12, 2022 shooting in Las Vegas. He has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder, two counts of second-degree robbery and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery.
A co-defendant who is not charged with murder, 46-year-old Tremont Jones, pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery, one count of conspiracy and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Prosecutors allege Jones tipped off Trone to the rapper’s location and showed jurors surveillance video of the two men talking outside the restaurant minutes before the murder.
Allen’s fiancee, Stephanie Sibounheuang, was the trial’s most dramatic witness. She said she had a “bad feeling” about the situation before they entered the restaurant. The couple was supposed to fly home to Atlanta later in the day.
She tearfully testified that the two had just gotten food at Roscoe’s when the ski-masked gunman appeared, put the gun in Allen’s face and demanded all of the couple’s jewelry, which she said was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Sibounheuang said he looked like a child “who didn’t know what he was doing.”
She said the gunman shot Allen, who pushed her out of the way and shielded her as he was shot. She called him a “hero” who saved his life.
The masked gunman then collected a watch and other jewelry from Allen.
Surveillance footage showed he fled about a minute after entering.
Sibounheuang put pressure on Allen’s wounds to try to stop the bleeding, as did the first police officer who arrived at the scene, but the rapper was later pronounced dead.
An autopsy report states that Allen was shot once in the chest and twice in the back.
Investigators found that Allen had a gun pointed at him at the time, but said he did not draw it before he was shot.
Sibounheuang posted a photo of the couple’s food on Instagram shortly before the shooting, but she testified that she removed the tag that would have shown which of the six Southern California Roscoe’s restaurants they were eating at.
Authorities initially said the post could have led to the robbery and shooting, but later backed off and blamed Jones for taking Trone and his son to the restaurant.
Surveillance footage from later in the day showed Trone and his son entering an apartment and leaving shortly thereafter with the son wearing different clothing and holding a trash bag.
Prosecutors allege that Trone set fire to the getaway car a few blocks from his home as part of a cover-up.
Trone’s wife and the teen’s stepmother, Shauntel Trone, was also arrested shortly after the shooting. Shortly before trial, she pleaded no contest to being an accessory after the fact.
