Matthew Fletcher, the former attorney of Suge Knight, agreed to a plea deal after being accused of trying to bribe witnesses for his client.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Fletcher pleaded no contest to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice and one count of perjury. He’ll be placed on probation for five years and must quit practicing law.
The plea deal requires Fletcher to resign from the state bar within 90 days. If he doesn’t, he may wind up in jail.
Fletcher was facing the possibility of spending nearly four years in prison. His alleged misdeeds stem from Suge Knight’s murder case.
The former Death Row Records owner was charged with murder after crashing his car into Terry Carter and Cle “Bone” Sloan in 2015. Carter died from injuries suffered in the hit-and-run.
Suge Knight’s legal team claimed he was acting in self-defense. They allegedly sought to pay witnesses to support their version of what happened.
Prosecutors say Fletcher and fellow attorney Thaddeus Culpepper were behind the bribery scheme. The lawyers wanted witnesses to say people confronted Suge Knight with weapons on the day of the deadly car crash.
Suge Knight ended up pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter in 2018. The disgraced mogul took a plea deal to avoid a life sentence and was sentenced to 28 years behind bars.