Suge Knight’s wrongful death retrial veered wildly off course Tuesday when the Death Row Records founder dramatically contradicted his lawyer’s claim that he had agreed to a last-minute deal in the long-running civil case. The partial settlement would have allowed Knight to avoid facing a jury over claims he recklessly killed married Compton dad Terry Carter with his Ford Raptor truck 10 years ago, sources and court filings reveal.
The breakdown came as a panel of prospective jurors was due to fill a tiny courtroom for jury selection in downtown Los Angeles. Knight’s lawyer, David Kenner, and the lawyer for Carter’s family, Lance Behringer, told the court they had worked overnight and reached a “mutual agreement” on the liability aspect of the case, the judge’s minute order confirmed. Under the eleventh-hour deal, signed by the attorneys and filed with the court, the lawyers said Knight had agreed to move straight to a damages phase “without admission of civil or criminal liability.” According to a source, the agreement essentially took “any intentional conduct out of the equation.” That meant the judge could potentially consider Knight’s argument that others, including Carter himself, could be on the hook for a portion of any damages awarded for the fatal hit-and-run at Tam’s Burgers on Jan. 29, 2015.
Moments after the judge set a May 27 hearing for the bench trial on damages only, Knight threw a giant monkey wrench into the proceeding. He said there was no need for parties to submit full transcripts from Knight’s initial 2022 trial in the case, which ended in a hung jury, because there was no deal. Speaking via a remote connection from the California prison where he’s currently serving a 28-year sentence for his voluntary manslaughter conviction involving Carter’s death, Knight denied Kenner’s claim he agreed to the purported pact.
“There was screaming and yelling,” the courtroom source tells Rolling Stone, describing the morning hearing. A minute order for the hearing stated simply: “The defendant represents to the court that he does not agree to waive trial by jury.”
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Once Knight refuted Kenner’s representation that they spoke by phone Monday night and agreed to the partial settlement, Kenner again renewed his motion to be relieved as Knight’s lawyer. Though Los Angeles County Judge Thomas Long denied Kenner’s withdrawal request at multiple prior hearings, this time, Judge Long “reserved his ruling” on the matter, the minute order states. Judge Long then put jury selection on hold and set a follow-up hearing for April 29.
“The court ordered everyone back next Tuesday, and I plan to be there. I’m given no other choice,” Kenner tells Rolling Stone. Earlier this month, Kenner told the court that Knight said something “disturbing” to him during a recent call that led to his request for release. He declined to say what it was in open court. Kenner also told the judge that Knight did not pay him for the first trial in the civil case. Knight refuted the claim.
Attempts to reach Behringer were not immediately successful Tuesday. Carter’s widow, Lillian Carter, and his two daughters, Nekaya and Crystal, filed their wrongful death lawsuit in June 2015, five months after Knight hit the gas on his F-150 truck and fatally mowed down Carter while injuring another man, Cle “Bone” Sloan, in the burger stand parking lot. An initial trial in the case ended with a hung jury in June 2022, with jurors deadlocked seven to five in favor of finding Knight liable.
At the prior trial, Knight testified from prison, telling jurors that Carter invited him to Tam’s that day to broker a payment from Dr. Dre for the use of Knight’s name and likeness in the N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton. Knight, 60, claimed that immediately upon his arrival at Tam’s, Sloan, who was working security for the movie, started fighting with him through the truck’s window while armed with a gun. He said he punched the gas on his truck in self-defense. (Sloan denied being armed when he testified during a hearing in Knight’s criminal case.)
Kenner told the jury in 2022 that the hit-and-run was a “tragic accident.” Behringer vehemently disputed that, arguing that surveillance video clearly showed that as soon as Knight reversed out of the parking lot, flinging Sloan forcefully to the ground, “the threat was neutralized.” He said Knight was required to follow the law at that point and yield to pedestrians. “You can’t just go crazy and take people down,” he told the jury.
The retrial in the case was expected to last a month, the parties told the court during a hearing Monday.
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