LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) – Marion “Suge” Knight’s former lawyer, Matthew Fletcher pleads guilty to trying to bribe witnesses in Knight’s 2016 murder trial.
KTLA reports the 57-year old former attorney plead guilty to conspiracy and perjury charges on Wednesday, resulting in his permanent disbarment from law. Fletcher, who represented Knight during his murder trial, agreed to stop practicing law in an effort to avoid any jail time. He will also be placed on probation for five years.
Fletcher was accused of attempting to bribe potential witnesses in 2018. Prosecutors were able to obtain a warrant to listen in on jailhouse phone calls between Fletcher and Knight. Fletcher was also charged by prosecutors as an accessory to murder after the fact. He is said to have attempted to pay witnesses to testify that there were guns at the scene of the 2016 tragedy in which Knight hit two men with his truck, corroborating his assertion that he acted in self-defense. Fletcher allegedly told Knight that it would cost him “$20,000 to $25,000 to secure his freedom.” Fletcher was also accused of conspiring to pay the man who survived, as reported by Complex.
Fletcher’s attorney, Alexandra Kazarian told Billboard that the trial was a “travesty of justice”, claiming the presiding judge “was gunning to send him to prison for the maximum sentence. This was an orchestrated hit, and he [Fletcher] definitely went down fighting.” She continued, “It’s not the result I was hoping for, but it was the smartest move he could have made.”
Knight, long-rumored to have been involved in the murders of Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace (Biggie Smalls), was sentenced to 28 years in prison in 2018. He plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter in connection to the death of Terry Carter, the man he purposely ran over in the parking lot of a Compton restaurant in 2015. The L.A. Times reported back then the incident was the result of a dispute on the Straight Outta Compton movie set. GOOD. FREAKING. RIDDANCE.
