Part of the lyrics read, "I catching slipping at the club and jack you for your necklace." In gangsta parlance, "jacking" is slang for robbery. The lyrics also referenced, "I'm parking lot jacking, running through our pockets with uh ski mask on straight laughing."The trial judge told the jury they could take these lyrics as "confessions, admissions or neither" and that they could not be used as evidence of the defendant's bad character or propensity to commit crimes. The court recognized rap lyrics may exaggerate or refer in the first person to things the rapper hasn't actually done, but that doesn't "exempt such writings from jury consideration where, as here, the lyrics describe details that mirror the crime charged."
Witnesses said [Kevin "Mo"] Nelson, a known drug dealer, was lured to the recording studio by Holmes and others on the pretense of a methamphetamine sale. Two men wearing ski masks and black clothes, later identified as Holmes and another man named Max Reed, accosted Nelson and his friend Kenny Clark, in the parking lot, according to court documents. During the struggle, Nelson's shirt and chain necklace were torn off and his pockets turned inside out....
How dumb was Holmes to write these lyrics in jail after he was arrested for murder? There's so much talk about how rappers are only playing characters and telling stories, but how obtuse do you need to be to imagine that you can immunize your confessions and admissions by putting them in rap form?
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