Pop Smoke’s killer Corey Walker has been given a new trial date after failing to reach a plea deal with prosecutors.
It’s been more than four years since the “Dio” rapper was killed, but the trial of his murderers has yet to begin.
Walker’s attorneys said Walker, the only adult defendant, was unable to reach a plea deal with prosecutors.
Walker’s attorney, Dionne Benjamin, told Rolling Stone: “Negotiations have failed. But there is still a possibility that we can come to an agreement. There are a few things that need to be resolved. If the issues are not resolved, we will go to trial.”
If a plea deal is not reached, jury selection for the trial will continue on Aug. 6.
Walker is the only suspect whose fate remains determined by the legal system.
A 15-year-old previously admitted that he pulled the trigger and shot Pop Smoke during a burglary in the Hollywood Hills in February 2020.
He was arraigned in juvenile court because of his age and also pleaded guilty to burglary and personal intent to discharge a firearm during the commission of a crime. He is expected to be held in a state juvenile prison until he is 25.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge J. Christopher Smith told the defendant and his 19-year-old co-defendant that Pop Smoke “lost his life for no apparent reason.”
“You don’t have the right to take someone else’s life. You don’t have the right to take someone else’s property,” Smith said.
Amelia Rose was at the Brooklyn rapper’s side when he was shot to death, and she previously shared the tragedy of his murder on WE tv’s Hip Hop Homicides experience.
Rose told host Van Laizen that she remembers Pope going upstairs to use the bathroom in the mansion he was renting at the time. Soon after, she was horrified when an intruder broke into the house and pointed a gun in her face.
“Dad said he was going to go upstairs. I sat on the bed and started taking my clothes off and he said, ‘Okay, I’ll be back,'” she recalled. “He was going to the bathroom, so those were his last words.”
“For a moment, like for a few seconds, I heard a noise,” Rose continued, describing hearing the sliding glass door to her second-floor bedroom open. “The guy had the mask on and his gun was like… ‘Look at me,’ you know? His eyes scared me. They ran to the bathroom. Dad screamed, ‘What?’
Rose tearfully recalled how Pop Smoak was led out of the bathroom by armed intruders and, after a brief commotion, she heard fatal gunshots ring out.
