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AUSTIN, Texas The LBJ Foundation will honor Texas native Willie Nelson with a prestigious award this May.

According to the foundation, Nelson will receive the "LBJ Liberty and Justice for All Award." All proceeds during a gala tribute on May 12 will go towards the "Willie Nelson Endowment for Uplifting Rural Communities" at the University of Texas at Austin's LBJ School of Public Affairs.

The foundation stated that Nelson is a "lifelong advocate for farmers, alleviating food insecurity and support for rural communities" and that he embodies President Lyndon B. Johnson's commitment to public service, "particularly in the areas of farming and food security."

Willie Nelson is a national treasure who gained fame through his sheer musical talent and won hearts as someone who truly cares about the lives of his fellow Americans. A product of rural Texas, Willie has never forgotten where he comes from," said Larry Temple, chairman of the LBJ Foundation's Board of Trustees. "His longtime efforts to raise money and awareness for family farmers through Farm Aid and numerous other endeavors to help those in need throughout his career make him a true inspiration."

This Willie Nelson Endowment will help fund research and fellowships that focus on sustainable agriculture, eliminating hunger, resilient energy, sustainable water and natural disaster recovery for rural and farm communities.

Nelson will join former recipients of the LBJ Liberty and Justice for All Award, including President George H. W. Bush, President Jimmy Carter, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and many others.

The award will be presented at the gala tribute dinner at the LBJ Presidential Library on May 12.

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LBJ Foundation to honor Willie Nelson with 'LBJ Liberty and Justice for All Award' - KVUE.com

(Bloomberg) -- As Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg appears poised to indict former President Donald Trump, some of the prosecutors most prominent New York critics have gathered under one roof.

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Tali Farhadian Weinstein, who is the wife of Saba Capital co-founder Boaz Weinstein, poured more than $8 million into her 2021 bid to become district attorney but lost to Bragg after a hard-fought Democratic primary race. Since her defeat, shes taught law, entered private practice and positioned herself as a legal affairs commentator.

In January, she added to her resume board chair of Free and Fair Litigation Group. But thats not just any legal nonprofit the group was founded by Carey Dunne and Mark Pomerantz, the two prosecutors who once led the Trump investigation for the DAs office but quit last year over Braggs supposed reluctance to indict the former president. Pomerantz put out a book last month harshly critical of the DA.

Read More: What Is an Indictment? Everything You Need to Know

The team-up has raised some eyebrows in the New York legal scene.

She ran for DA once before, and Pomerantzs criticism of Bragg is well-documented, said Daniel Horwitz, a former prosecutor in the office. It does raise a question about whether there are multiple agendas at work here.

Birds of a Feather

Birds of a feather flock together, observed public defender Eliza Orlins, who ran against both Bragg and Farhadian Weinstein in the DA race.

Farhadian Weinstein, Pomerantz and Dunne didnt respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for Bragg declined to comment.

Free and Fair was announced as a nonprofit law firm designed to counter the new authoritarian threat to our democracy and individual rights, citing gun safety, voting rights and book bans among its core issues. But Dunne and Pomerantz also touted their democracy-defending credentials in the announcement by noting that they resigned their government posts when their grand jury presentation was shut down, a clear dig at Bragg.

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In his February book People v. Donald Trump, Pomerantz claims Bragg balked at an ambitious criminal fraud case he and Dunne had been building against Trump, possibly because the DA was afraid to risk losing at trial.

Pomerantz also wrote that a zombie prosecution of Trump over his alleged hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels would be a very peculiar and unsatisfying end to the investigation because the charge might end up being only a misdemeanor.

Wall Streets Pick

Bragg, who called Pomerantzs criticisms appalling, began ramping up the investigation again earlier this year and now appears close to charging Trump over the hush-money payment.

During the DA primary, Farhadian Weinstein, a Rhodes Scholar and Yale Law School graduate, positioned herself somewhat to the right of Bragg, though both ran as ex-federal prosecutors who would balance social-justice concerns while still being tough on crime. Bragg more heavily emphasized decriminalizing certain offenses though, an approach Farhadian Weinstein attacked during the campaign.

She was undeniably Wall Streets pick for the office. David Einhorn, Bill Ackman and Jason Mudrick were among the donors who funded a primary campaign that raised more than all her opponents combined and even more than any mayoral candidate, according to public records. Farhadian Weinstein was also endorsed by a number of leading Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and former Attorney General Eric Holder.

Some think she still has her eyes on the prize.

Orlins, who ran for DA on explicitly defunding the prosecutors office, says its a given that Farhadian Weinsteins team-up with Pomerantz and Dunne is aimed at setting up a challenge to Bragg in a future Democratic primary, the only race that matters in deep-blue Manhattan.

Civil rights lawyer Janos Marton, another progressive DA candidate who fell out of the race early due to lack of funds, shares that view. Its always been clear to me that Tali is preparing to run again for this position, he said.

--With assistance from Greg Farrell.

(Updates with additional background.)

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As Manhattan DA Bragg Targets Trump, His Rivals Are Teaming Up - Yahoo Finance

In his nightly monologue this past Monday, Tucker Carlson gave his assessment of what caused the meltdown at Silicon Valley Bank. He began by noting that, after the 2008 financial crash, the Obama Administrations Department of Justice, led by Eric Holder, instituted D.E.I.diversity, equity, and inclusionstandards for the financial sector. According to Carlson, this meant that women and minorities, who, in his estimation, were clearly incompetent, now worked in pivotal positions in the banking industry. Ideologues used the 2008 bank bailout to kill American meritocracy, Carlson concluded. Andy Kessler, an opinion columnist at the Wall Street Journal, published a similar take in that days paper, speculating that the banks leadership may have faltered because it was distracted by diversity demands.

In Carlsons and Kesslers imagining, meritocracy has always been the foundation of American prosperity, and normal peopleread: none of the people who would benefit from diversity-hiring initiatives at a bankare being guilted or even strong-armed into giving up the fruits of their labor. Women, immigrants, the L.G.B.T.Q.+ community, and Black Americans, in this story, are trying to create a rigged system in which people receive jobs, plaudits, and wealth for having marginalized identities.

Carlsons and Kesslers anti-woke interpretations of the bank collapse provoked a predictable outrage cycle online. The usual progressive counter-argument is to point out that the conservative vision is ahistoricalthat the U.S. has never been a meritocracy, and that race- and gender-conscious remediations are the only way to address the countrys legacies of slavery, disenfranchisement, and exclusion. But Ive always been a bit unsettled, or at the very least dissatisfied, by this response, even if I agree with its basic tenets. Its true that the U.S. isnt a country where every person starts at the same spot, and makes their way by some combination of talent and grit. Still, I worry that progressives hesitation to defend meritocracy may actually work against progressive aims. It seems like meritocracy could go the way of free speech, as a bedrock principle that the left allows the right to claim as its own, even if it matters to a great number of Americans. Just as suppressing free speech will never be popularI wrote on Tuesday about Ron DeSantiss doomed crusade to punish teachers and remove books from librariesleaving behind the idea of meritocracy is a losing proposition.

At the very least, the lefts hesitation to defend meritocracy has given conservatives a chance to monopolize the conversation around it, albeit to varying degrees of success. Last month, Vivek Ramaswamy, the Harvard- and Yale-educated entrepreneur who is running for President on the Republican ticket, announced his candidacy with a video that felt, more than anything, like it had been produced by some ambitious entry-level employees at a consulting firm who had been given access to the A.V. room. Were in the middle of a national identity crisis, Ramaswamy narrates in a voice that sounds like Ben Shapiro impersonating Barack Obama. Patriotism, hard work, and family have disappeared. We now embrace one secular religion after another. From COVIDism to climatism, and gender ideology. He goes on to say that the basic tenets of the woke left have created psychological slavery in the United States, which has completely replaced our culture of free speech in America. At first blush, his message doesnt seem all that out of line: he says most Americans agree on the core values of the country, which include basic, if somewhat abstract, freedoms and the promise of meritocracy. In his speeches and social-media posts, Ramaswamy has clarified a bit what all that means for him. He wants to eliminate the United States Department of Education and eliminate affirmative action because of its inherent anti-white & anti-Asian racism.

For the past five years or so, Ive reported on the rightward shift among immigrant voters, which, in many parts of the country, has been influenced by concerns about public safety and educational merit. There have been signs of an emerging conservative Asian American movement that galvanizes around schooling issues, in both big cities and in affluent suburbs with competitive public-school systems. In New York City, majority-Asian precincts shifted twenty-three points to the G.O.P. In San Francisco, the temporary elimination of merit-based admissions at Lowell High Schoola magnet school where more than half of the student body is Asian Americanprompted political mobilization that led to the removal of three members of the citys school board, and spilled over to the recall of Chesa Boudin, the citys progressive district attorney. These fights have resonated with Asian Americans across the countryespecially Chinese Americanswho believe that equity reforms in education, and moves like the elimination of standardized testing, are all engineered to diminish their academic accomplishments and squeeze off their childrens access to class mobility.

These developments, combined with a similar shift among Latino voters in the past two Presidential elections, and the Democratic Partys failed attempts to reach its imagined coalition of voters of color, has led to a lot of theorizing about a multiracial future for the Republican Party. Ramaswamys strategy, I imagine, is to broadcast a vision of meritocracy that, outside of establishing his culture-war bona fides, also appeals to immigrants who are anxious about their childrens educational and economic prospects. The possibility of a multiracial right that flips states like Virginia, Georgia, and Arizona into Republican strongholds may sit with those voters. Ramaswamy will almost certainly fail in his political ambitions because he cannot tell a story without veering into screeds about wokeness and comically dense monologues about banking law and bureaucratic legal ideas. His conservatism, clearly designed for bankers and tech workers who are worried their kids wont get into the Ivy League, is both weird and off-putting. But that doesnt mean he is wrong to see that the idea of meritocracy resonates with most Americans, that a perceived abandonment of it would make many of those people nervous.

What would it look like for progressives to embrace the idea of American meritocracy? There is an argument to be made that the equity model pushes a vision of merit in which disadvantaged people are finally given a fair chance to compete with the privileged. But its expressionwhether in attempts to scale back standardized testing, diversify corporate boardrooms, or place D.E.I. infrastructure into storied institutionsonly really exists in the same lite, educated spaces where DeSantis and the like have waged their war against wokeness. But the promise of meritocracy can be found elsewhere; it can be found in supporting public schools and community colleges, providing broad economic protections for families, and taxing the super-wealthy. These policies, which are already popular among Democrats, might advance a better story of meritocracyone that could appeal to voters who worry about the overreaches of the equity approach, and one that doesnt abandon an ideal that very few Americans, of any political leaning, would ever leave behind.

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Why Progressives Shouldn't Give Up on Meritocracy - The New Yorker

By FRED SHUSTERCity News Service

LOS ANGELES (CNS)Opening statements are expected tomorrow in the federal criminal trial of suspended Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who while a member of the Board of Supervisors alleg- edly steered county contracts to USC's social work school in exchange for benefits for his son.

Ridley-Thomas, 68, was suspended from the Los Angeles City Council following the October 2021 federal indictment. He is charged with one count each of conspiracy and bribery, two counts of honest services mail fraud and 15 counts of honest services wire fraud. He has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

A jury was seated in downtown Los Angeles Tuesday to hear the case against Ridley-Thomas.

Prosecutors contend that in exchange for Ridley-Thomas' efforts on behalf of the then-dean of the social work school, Marilyn Flynn, the politician's son Sebastian was given admission to USC, a full tuition scholarship, and a paid professorship.

Flynn admitted helping to disguise and funnel $100,000 from Ridley-Thomas' campaign account through the school to another nonprofit, United Ways of California, for the benefit of the Policy, Research & Practice Initiative, a new nonprofit initiative founded by Sebastian, according to her plea agreement.

By funneling the payment through USC, Ridley-Thomas and co-defendant Flynn attempted to disguise the true source of the payment to make it appear as though USC, not the then-supervisor, was the generous benefactor supporting his son and PRPI, prosecutors say.

The US Attorney's Office alleges that Ridley-Thomas delivered on his end of the bargain. As a supervisor in 2018, he voted on three county proposals that Flynn had sought to shore up her school's shoddy financialsituation, including a vote approving a much more lucrative amended TeleHealth agreement with the USC School of Social Work, prosecutors contend. He also allegedly sought to influence key county decision-makers associated with the approvals and made sure Flynn knew of his efforts.

Flynn, 84, of Los Feliz, pleaded guilty in September to one count of bribery, admitting that she agreed to route money from Ridley-Thomas to Sebastian's nonprofit. She is scheduled to be sentenced June 26.

Prosecutors say the amended Telehealth contract was expected to generate about $9 million a year for the social work school.

As a result of the deal, Sebastian became a professor of social work and public policy at USCdespite lacking a graduate degree. He was later terminated over questions about his original appointment and concerns by the university over the $100,000 donation. He also obtained a full-tuitionscholarship and graduate school admission, papers filed in Los Angeles federal court show.

Flynn was dean of the School of Social Work at USC for 21 years until her departure in 2018. She had originally been facing the same slate of federal charges as Ridley-Thomas.

Responding to news of Flynn's plea agreement, USC issued a statement last year saying that after the university learned during the summer of 2018 about unethical conduct by the former dean, "we quickly disclosed the matter to the US Attorney's Office. Marilyn Flynn has not been employed by the universitysince September 2018. USC is not a party to the criminal case but respects the judicial process."

Ridley-Thomas is a giant figure in local politics, previously serving on the Los Angeles City Council from 1991-2002, then serving in the state Assembly and state Senate before he was elected to the powerful county Board of Supervisors in 2008, serving until 2020 when he returned to the City Council.

He has a doctorate in social ethics from USC and spent 10 years as executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles, beginning in 1981.

By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH

LOS ANGELES (CNS)A man who gunned down rapper Nipsey Hussle in front of the musician's Crenshaw District clothing store, but whose attorney insisted the killing was an impulsive act committed in the heat of passionwas convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder.

Jurors also found Eric Holder Jr., 32, guilty of two counts each of attempted voluntary manslaughter and assault with a firearm involving two other people who were injured in the March 31, 2019, shooting, along with one count of possession of a firearm by a felon. Jurors also found true allegations that he personally and intentionally discharged a handgun and that he personally inflicted great bodily injury on one of the victims.

Holder's attorney argued throughout the trial that the shooting was carried out in the "heat of passion," and did not rise to the level of first-degree murder. He argued that, at most, Holder committed manslaughter when he killed the 33-year-old rapper, whose real name was ErmiasJoseph Asghedom, outside Hussle's story near Crenshaw Boulevard and Slauson Avenue.

Jurors deliberated for nearly five hours on Friday, then met for just over a half-hour Wednesday morning before announcing they had reached a verdict.

Holder is facing a potential life prison term when he is sentenced Sept. 15. Shortly after the verdict, Deputy District Attorney John McKinney told reporters, "I want to say on behalf of the District Attorney's Office that we are both proud and I am personally a little relieved that the verdict came in a complete, absolute agree- ment with the charges that Eric Holder murdered Ermias Asghedom in cold blood."

"... We hope that today is a day in which the Asghedom family, the friends and fans of Nipsey Hussle around the world find some measure of closure," the prosecutor said. "Obviously nothing that happened here today can heal the wound. Nothing that happened here today can restore Mr. Asghedom to this world. But again, we hope that there is some resounding peace in the fact that his killer will be in prisonlikely for the rest of his life."

Defense attorney Aaron Jansen said in a statement that he was "deeply" disappointed with the jury's finding of first-degree murder, but that the defense was "grateful that the jury agreed with us, in part, that the case was over-charged" involving the other two men.

He said the defense will present Superior Court Judge H. Clay Jacke with "substantial evidence relating to Mr. Holder Jr.'s mental health," along with filing a notice of appeal on behalf of Holder.

When the trial began last month, Holder's attorney conceded that his client "shot and killed" the rapper, but said the crime in which his client fired with one gun in each hand occurred in the "heat of passion."

In his closing argument, Jansen told jurors: "This was an act of impulse and rashness."

The defense attorney said his client had "no cooling-off period" after being "called publicly a snitch by some- one as famous as Nipsey Hussle" nine minutes and 10 seconds earlier.

"This is a provocation that stirs up rage and powerful emotions," Jansen said. Holder's attorney also con- tended that the case was "overcharged from the beginning,'' and that the correct charge against Holder involving the rapper's slaying should have been voluntary manslaughteran option Judge H. Clay Jacke told jurors earlier they could consider.

The prosecutor told jurors that the killing was "cold-blooded" and "calculated," saying Holder had "quite a bit of time for premeditation and deliberation" before returning to the parking lot near Slauson Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard where the rapper was shot 11 times.

"He's not consumed by rage," the prosecutor said, elaborating the defense's argument that he had been provoked was "nonsense."

Hussle was a "successful artist from the same neighborhood as Eric Holder, who's an unsuccessful artist," the prosecutor said.

"I submit to you that the motive for killing Nipsey Hussle had little to do with the conversation they had. ... There's pre-existing jealousy," the prosecutor said, prompting a quick objection from the defense attorney.

"Saying, 'You're through,' before shooting him and shooting him a number of times ... kicking him in the head, that's personal ... What makes this murder first-degree is premeditation and deliberation," McKinney said.

McKinney told the panel Hussle joined a gang as a youngster, changed over time and "wanted to change the neighborhood," but remained accessible without an entourage, security or fanfare while standing outside his business when he was shot by somebody with whom he had shaken hands just minutes before on "just another beautiful Sun- day afternoon in Los Angeles."

"You can't bring Nipsey back ... But you can do justice. Please do justice," McKinney told the panel shortly before the case was handed over to the jury.

The deputy district attorney said the attempted murder charges were a "closer question," but said he believed that jurors would ultimately con- clude that they were "not mere accidental shootings."

Jurors acquitted Holder of the attempted murder charge involving Kerry Lathan, who was shot in the back, finding the defendant guilty instead of attempted voluntary manslaughter and assault with a firearm. The prosecutor said the panelwhich found Holder guilty of the same charges involving a second victim who was grazed by a bulletmay not have been given the verdict form for attempted murder involving that victim.

Holder's attorney said there was "no hatred" and "no jealousy towards Nipsey Hussle" over his successful music career, telling jurors the allegation of snitching was a "serious" accusation made in public by some- one of the rapper's stature and that Hussle didn't provide his client with any details when questioned.

"It's not victim-blaming, it's not an excuse and it's not a justification," Jansen said.

The defense attorney also said his clientwho was "just living his life in Long Beach" and wasn't in a gang any longerhad been overcharged with attempted murder involving the two other men who were injured in the gunfire, saying that "he had no reason to kill these other two individuals."

Jurors heard eight days of testimony during the trial, which was delayed for a day last Tuesday following what Holder's attorney said was an attack on Holder in jail.

Jansen told reporters outside court last Wednesday that his client lost consciousness after being attacked the previous morning in a jail holding cell with other inmates while waiting to be taken to court. He subsequently underwent an MRI and required three staples to the back of his head, also suffering a swollen left eye and swelling on the left side of his face, according to the attorney.

The jury was shown autopsy photos during the testimony of a medical examiner who said Hussle suffered 11 gunshot wounds from his head to one of his feet.

Dr. Lawrence Nguyenwho reviewed the results of the autopsy done by another medical examiner who is unavailable to testifytold jurors that he concluded the cause of the rapper's death was "multiple gunshot wounds."

"I believe the number of shots to be within the realm of 10 to 11," Nguyen told the downtown Los Angeles jury. One of the rapper's wounds caused by a bullet that entered through the rapper's right abdomensevered his spinal cord and would likely have caused paralysis in the lower extremities if he had survived the shooting, the medical examiner testified.

During the defense's portion of the case, private investigator Robert Freeman told jurors that being called a snitch could put a gang member at risk of being beaten or killed. He noted that it would be more dangerous for an accusation about snitching to be made against someone in public where others could hear it and that something said by someone with a high status within a gang is "almost gold" on the streets.

Freeman, a former Los Angeles police officer who acknowledged being terminated from the force while he was still on probation, also told jurors that the firing of two gunsone in each hand that Holder allegedly wielded during the shootingwould lessen the accuracy of the shots. He noted that a two-handed grip on a gun is the best way to shoot with accuracy.

Holder did not testify in his own defense.

He has remained behind bars since his arrest two days after the shooting. His attorney told jurors that he surrendered himself at a mental health clinic in Bellflower.

After Hussle's death, thousands of people were on hand in April 2019 for a service in his honor, with singer Stevie Wonder and rapper Snoop Dogg among those paying tribute to him.

In a letter that was read during the service, former President Barack Obama wrote, "While most folks look at the Crenshaw neighborhood where he grew up and see only gangs, bullets and despair, Nipsey saw potential. He saw hope. He saw a community that, even through its flaws, taught him to always keep going."

The rapper-entrepreneur was posthumously honored with two Grammy Awards in 2020 for best rap perfor- mance for "Racks in the Middle" and for best rap/sung performance for "Higher."

Herman "Cowboy" Douglas, who was at the shopping center that day and testified as a prosecution witness, cried softly outside court after the verdict.

He told reporters later that he still wants to understand why his close friend was shot and killed, saying that the rapper "never called that man a snitch."

"It was so senseless. Why?" he said, adding that a "good person" was taken from the world.

"He had finally arrived. He had finally made it," Douglas said of Nipsey Hussle.

LOS ANGELES (CNS)Los Angeles rapper Drakeo the Ruler has died after being stabbed at a star-studded 12-hour concert at Banc of California Stadium at Exposition Park, according to multiple media reports Dec. 19.

Officials have not confirmed the victim's death or identity, but one of the rapper's representatives confirmed the information with Rolling Stone magazine and the Guardian, and colleagues were posting their shock andcondolences on social media.

The California Highway Patrol released the following statement Sunday:

"On Saturday, Dec. 18, 2021, at approximately 8:36 PM, a fight broke out behind the main stage of the Once Upon A Time In LA music festival in Los Angeles. During the altercation, one man was severely injured by a suspect wielding an edged weapon. Officers from the California Highway Patrol, Los Angeles Police Depart- ment, and Los Angeles Fire Department responded to the scene. The victim was transported to a local area hospital. The case is currently under investigation by the CHP. Any witnesses with information about this incident are asked to contact Southern Division Investigative Services Unit at 323-644-9550.''

Drakeo, whose real name was Darrell Caldwell, was taken to a hospital in critical condition where he later died, according to multiple outlets including the Los Angeles Times, TMZ and the online publication Complex. He had just turned 28 on Dec. 1.

The Once Upon a Time in LA Music Festival, which was slated to run from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, was shut down early by police and firefighters after the violence broke out, according to Officer G. Todd of the LAPD's Operations Center.

Artists including Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Ice Cube, George Clinton, Al Green, the Isley Brothers and Cypress Hill were scheduled to perform. Video from the scene showed several people arguing and fighting outside the concert just before the stabbing, but it was unclear what sparked the confrontation.

"There was an altercation in the roadway backstage," a Live Nation spokesperson said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. "Out of respect for those involved and in coordination with local authorities, artists and organizers (we) decided not to move forward with remaining sets so the festival was ended an hour early."

The LAPD tweeted at 10:34 p.m. Saturday that "There has been an incident at the Once Upon A Time in LA festival at the Banc of California. The festival has concluded early."

Overnight, social media was filled with tributes to Caldwell, including one from fellow rapper Drake, who collaborated with him earlier this year on the song "Talk to Me."

"Nah man this s--- isn't right for real, wtf are we doing," Drake wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of the

two together. "Always picked my spirit up with your energy. RIP Drakeo."

Snoop Dogg tweeted a statement about the incident Sunday morning.

"I'm saddened by the events that took place last night at the Once Upon a Time in LA festival. My condolences go out to the family and friends of Drakeo the Ruler," he wrote. "I'm not with anything negative and as one of the many performers, I was there to spread positive vibes only to my city of LA. Last night I was in my dress-ing room when I was informed about the incident and chose to immediately leave the festival grounds.

"My prayers go out to everyone affected by tragedy," the Long Beach rapper continued. "Please take care,

love one another and stay safe ya'll. I'm praying for peace in hip hop."

Journalist Jeff Weiss shared his thoughts on Twitter.

"RIP Drakeo, the greatest West Coast artist of a generation, a legend who invented a new rap language of slippery cadences, nervous rhythms, and psychedelic slang, who beat life twice only to suffer the most tragic fate conceiv- able," Weiss wrote, punctuated with a broken heart emoji. "The Ruler, once, always, and forever."

Caldwell was a Los Angeles native who has released 10 mixtapes since 2015 and put out his first studio album earlier this year titled, "I Am Mr. Mosely."

Critics have cited his unique flow and "oddly expressive, poetic word-choices."The Times called him "the

most original West Coast stylist in decades."

He recorded the mixtape "Thank You For Using GTL" at Men's Central Jail while awaiting trial in the 2016 killing of a 24-year-old man, according to The Times, which said he was acquitted of murder and attempted murder charges. Caldwell later pleaded to conspiracy charges in connection with the killing and was released in November 2020, the newspaper added.

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Ridley-Thomas - Compton Herald

The man who murdered Nipsey Hussle in a daylight ambush outside the beloved rappers clothing store in Los Angeles was sentenced to 60 years to life in prison, The Associated Press reports.

Eric Ronald Holder Jr., 33, appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday, Feb. 22, and received his punishment after his conviction last July. Jurors found that he murdered the Grammy-winning rapper with premeditation following an initial conversation in a strip-mall parking lot on March 31, 2019.

During the hearing, the court heard from one of Hussles friends, as well as a letter from Holders father. Holder was not eligible for the death penalty, and a life sentence was largely expected.

During the trial last summer, prosecutors argued that Holder Jr. left the scene of the initial conversation and ate some food, and drove around the block before he stalked back to the parking lot about 10 minutes later and opened fire with a black semiautomatic in one hand and a silver revolver in the other.

Public defender Aaron Jansen argued that Holder Jr. acted in the heat of passion because he believed Hussle had accused him of being a snitch.

The conviction for first-degree murder and personal use of a firearm meant Holder Jr. was facing up to 50 years to life in prison.

In his closing argument during Holder Jr.s trial, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney John McKinneycalled Hussle a favorite son of South Los Angeleswho transcended the pockets of concentrated poverty and perils of gang life gripping his Hyde Park neighborhood to become an acclaimed recording artist, visionary entrepreneur, and noted philanthropist.

The streets he used to run as a young man became the life material that he used to become a voice of those same streets. While some people get successful, they make money, they leave their neighborhood, they change their address, this man was different. He wanted to change the neighborhood. He invested in the neighborhood. He kept the same friends and the neighborhood loved him. They called him Neighborhood Nip, McKinney said.Editors picks

He was a father, he was a son, he was a brother, he was a human being, the prosecutor said, showing jurors a photo of Hussle crouching down to take a photo with a young child just moments before his death.

Shortly after the trial started June 15, Jansen conceded his client fired the 10 or 11 bullets that struck Hussle from the top of his head down to his feet, ripping through his liver and lungs and severing his spine. But the lawyer was adamant Holder Jr. acted in the heat of passion after Hussle allegedly mentioned he heard about some paperwork related to Holder. In gang parlance, paperwork means documentation showing someone is cooperating with law enforcement. Jansen said his client considered the allegation asnitch jacket that threatened his life.

Holder Jr., like Hussle, joined the Rollin 60s Neighborhood Crips as a teen, but by 2019, he had moved to Long Beach, started working at a restaurant, and put his gang membership in the rearview mirror, Jansen told jurors. When Holder Jr. happened upon Hussle the day of the shooting, it was a chance encounter, the lawyer said.

Think about Erics state of mind at this point. I just came over to say hello, havent been around for a while. Im just waiting for [a food] order to be ready. Im not involved in that lifestyle anymore. And the famous the great Nipsey Hussle is saying that they have paperwork on me,' Jansen said, arguing that the provocation triggered rage and powerful emotions in his client that ran out of control. Jansen said his client, who wasbeaten up and slashed with a razorby fellow inmates amid the high-profile trial, was willing to take responsibility for his actions and admit to voluntary manslaughter.

McKinney, meanwhile, scoffed at the suggestion Hussle provoked his own slaying with the mention of paperwork. He said the people who witnessed the paperwork conversation including Hussles close friend Herman Cowboy Douglas and Holders friend turned unwitting getaway driver, Bryannita Nicholson described the parking lot exchange as short and civil, nothing that raised a specter of imminent danger.

It wasnt hostile. It didnt look like a fight was about to happen. No one was agitated, McKinney said in his closing.

According to McKinney, Holder Jr. had plenty of time to reflect and cool down. He said in the 10 minutes between the initial parking lot conversation and the shooting, Holder Jr. rode around the block in Nicholsons car one and a half times, loaded bullets in the magazine of his semiautomatic, ate some chili cheese fries, donned a shirt, ordered Nicholson to wait for him in an alley, stalked back to the parking lot wielding two loaded guns, and unleashed his surprise attack. Theres plenty of evidence of premeditation and deliberation, McKinney argued. And either way, a cold, calculated decision to kill can be reached quickly, he said.

I submit to you that the motive for killing Nipsey Hussle had little or nothing to do with the conversation they had; theres already a pre-existing jealousy,McKinney told the jury. Here you have Nipsey Hussle, who is a successful artist from the same neighborhood, [and] Mr. Holder, who is an unsuccessful rap artist.Trending

Hussle was a mixtape veteran on a clear upward trajectory when his life was cut short at the age of 33. A month before he died, he attended the 2019 Grammys with his daughter Emani and girlfriend Lauren London in support of his debut studio album,Victory Lap, nominated for best rap album. A year later, he was awarded two posthumous Grammys for his performances of Racks in the Middle, and the uplifting track Higher, a collaboration withDJ KhaledandJohn Legend.

London, who welcomed a son with Hussle, told mourners at the rappers Staples Center memorial that shed never felt this type of pain before. She then read a heartfelt text message that shed sent to Hussle two months prior. I want you to know I feel real joy in my heart when Im around you, the message read. I feel safe around you Protected. Like a shield over me when youre around.

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Nipsey Hussles Killer, Eric Holder, Gets 60 Years to Life in Prison