One of the individuals convicted in the 2020 murder of Pop Smoke has been sentenced to four years in prison for smuggling fentanyl into a Los Angeles County juvenile detention facility. The sentencing follows a legal process regarding a separate incident that occurred while the individual was already in custody.
On Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, 21-year-old Deijae Jester was sentenced after pleading no contest to the possession of 25 fentanyl-laced pills. According to reports from the Los Angeles Times, the contraband was allegedly smuggled into the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall by Jester’s mother during a visit in December 2025.
Jester was 15 years old when he and three others participated in the home invasion at the Hollywood Hills residence where Pop Smoke was staying in February 2020. Authorities later determined through recorded jail calls that Jester was the individual who shot the Brooklyn rapper three times in the back. He was convicted of the murder in 2023.
Investigators utilized surveillance footage and recorded communications to establish that Jester and his mother, Nickia Randall, had coordinated the plan to bring the narcotics into the facility. During the December visit, guards observed Randall attempting to pass a blue balloon containing the pills and a small amount of blue powder to her son.
While the defense highlighted Jester’s difficult upbringing and his efforts to complete his high school education while incarcerated, Judge P. Tamu Usher ultimately handed down a four-year sentence. Because California law prohibits holding a juvenile past the age of 25, this new conviction will result in Jester being transferred to a state prison.
The legal proceedings surrounding the murder of Pop Smoke have been extensive. Corey Walker, who was 19 at the time of the crime, was sentenced to 29 years in prison in 2025. Another participant, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, received a sentence of four years and two months in juvenile detention after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and home invasion burglary in 2023. The case of Keandre Rodgers, who was 18 at the time, remains under reassessment.