Matthew Fletcher, the former attorney for Death Row Records founder Suge Knight, might be bunking with his client if a jury finds him guilty of conspiring to bribe witnesses to lie for the gangsta rap mogul.
If Fletcher is found guilty, the lawyer could face up to four years in prison.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Matthew Fletcher is a defendant in a criminal case, representing himself.
In his closing arguments, Deputy District Attorney Stefan Mrakich compared Fletcher to Saul Goodman, the morally rudderless attorney on “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul.”
He might have a reason to have done so.
Before Knight signed a plea deal in his 2018 murder case and was sent to prison for 28 years, Fletcher and his co-defense, Thaddeus Culpepper, were indicted on charges connected to witness tampering.
The lawyer was also charged with “a count of perjury arising from a hearing connected to an unrelated allegation of misconduct brought in 2016 by the State Bar of California,” the LA Times reports.
It is alleged that Fletcher and Culpepper said that they would be willing to pay witnesses to say that they saw a group of men approach Knight at the burger stand in 2015 during a deadly encounter during a taping for an advertisement for the movie “Straight Outta Compton.”
The story would claim that a posse of thugs stood armed with guns in order an effort to support the claim that had been plotting to assassinate the former Death Row Records CEO.
The lie was meant to substantiate why Suge ran over and killed Terry Carter and seriously injured Cle “Bone” Sloan in January 2015.
Law enforcement has tapes that caught Fletcher speaking to Suge and a Sheriff’s Department informant.
Fletcher blabbed to the informant on a tape played before the court, “If these m############ got a price, well let’s get that m############ price paid. I told Suge…man, you can always make some more money. You can’t make any more freedom though.”
Fletcher told Suge that $25,000 was a “fair investment” to pay someone to lie on another recording.
A transcript of the call to Suge from Fletcher was read in court during the trial. “If this cat’s ready to come forward and say, ‘Look man we had guns’… I don’t care why he says it … And if somewhere down the road they say, ‘Oh, they gave us $50 racks,’ say, ‘OK, well prove that s###.'”
The prosecution noted that they do not have enough evidence that Fletcher went through with the scheme and offered anyone money.
Fletcher maintains that any conversation about paying witnesses was about paying for videos or other recordings of the confrontation at the burger stand. In Suge’s case, he mentioned that these videos exist, but no one has seen them yet.
The jury is now in deliberation, and the world is waiting to see if he will be convicted for possibly attempting to bribe people to lie for Suge Knight.
Death Row, the label that allowed Suge to get so powerful, is now under new ownership after being purchased by Snoop Dogg.