The former attorney of Suge Knight pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiracy and perjury charges, resulting in a permanent barring from the practice of law.
Death Row Records founder Matthew Fletcher, 57, who represented him when Knight was charged with murder in 2016, pleaded no contest to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice and one count of perjury. As part of his agreement not to practice law, Fletcher has agreed not to go to jail. As part of his agreement to not practice law, Fletcher will spend five years on probation.
Almost four years after Fletcher was accused of bribing potential witnesses at Knight's murder trial, Fletcher's arrest comes as a shock. In order to listen in on the phone calls between Fletcher and Knight, the prosecutors obtained a warrant and charged Fletcher with conspiring to commit bribery, conspiring to suborn perjury, conspiring to obstruct justice, and accessory after the fact.
During the 2016 incident in which Knight hit two men with his truck, Fletcher allegedly tried to pay witnesses to testify that there were guns on the scene, thus correlating his claim of self-defense. Knight was charged with telling Fletcher "$20,000 to $25,000" would secure his freedom. Fletcher was also alleged to have conspired to pay the man who survived the incident.
Alexa Kazarian, Fletcher's attorney, told Billboard that the trial was a "travesty of justice." According to Kazarian, the presiding judge had "telegraphed repeatedly since the beginning that he was going to send Fletcher to prison."
“The forces that be combined to target him and take him out of rotation,” Kazarian said. “This was an orchestrated hit, and he definitely went down fighting. It’s not the result I was hoping for, but it was the smartest move he could’ve made.”
Fletcher instead faces five years probation rather than possible prison time.
Knight pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in 2015 when he struck Terry Carter with his truck in a Compton restaurant parking lot. The jury sentenced him to 28 years in prison in 2018. An argument occurred on the Straight Outta Compton set, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
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