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One of the suspects in Pop Smoke's murder has been sentenced after pleading guilty. In juvenile court on Thursday, April 6th, a 20-year-old man pleaded guilty and admitted he entered a Hollywood Hills mansion as a teenager in February 2020 with plans to rob the Brooklyn rapper, who was shot to death by his assailants, according to the Los Angeles Times.
His identity has not been made public, but he was sentenced to four years and two months in the Secure Youth Treatment Facility in Los Angeles but could remain in juvenile custody until the age of 25 after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and home invasion robbery. He is the first of four defendants (Corey Walker, who was 19 at the time, and a 15-year-old and 17-year-old) charged in Pop Smoke's death to plead guilty in the fatal incident. According to the Times, he declined to apply the two years and eight months that the defendant has already spent in juvenile hall to his sentence.
Pop Smoke, whose real name was Bashar Barakah Jackson, died on February 19th, 2020 at the age of 20 after he was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead several hours later. Reportedly, a group of teens wearing ski masks entered the rapper's bedroom after he posted a photo on Instagram that accidentally showed the address of the property he was renting in LA.
According to testimony, Pop Smoke was pistol-whipped by the 15-year-old and shot three times in the back before stealing a Rolex, which they later sold for $2,000. The defendant who just pleaded guilty reportedly scouted the mansion and helped Walker recruit the three other juveniles for the robbery. He kept in "constant communication" with Walker who drove the getaway car.