Almost 2 years ago After hip-hop star PnB Rock was shot dead inside a Roscoe's Chicken 'N Waffles restaurant in South Los Angeles, prosecutors showed an autopsy image on a television screen in the courtroom Tuesday as the trial of the two men facing charges in his killing began.
A jury of eight men and four women watched in silence as Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Timothy Richardson made his opening statement. The prosecutor explained to the jury the “road map” of surveillance video that he plans to play in the courtroom in Compton, California, over the next two weeks. Defense attorneys for defendants Freddie Trone, 42, and Tremont Jones, 46, said the jury should instead focus on the loopholes and “speculation” in the state’s case.
“My client, Freddie Trone, did not pull the trigger. He was not in the restaurant at the time,” said defense attorney Winston McKesson. “This is a more serious charge of murder. We have to have evidence to support it.” Trone has pleaded not guilty to murder, two counts of robbery and one count of conspiracy to commit a felony.
Prosecutors alleged that Tron drove his 17-year-old son to Roscoe’s and sent him into the restaurant with a loaded gun and a plan to steal “middle child” artist Rakim Allen’s diamond-encrusted chains, rings and watches. Richardson said evidence will show that Tron “exploited” his son and that he should answer for the teen who shot Allen, robbed the rapper and his fiancée Stephanie Sibonhuang, and left Allen bleeding on the floor. Surveillance video will show the elder Tron talking to Jones and another unidentified man outside the restaurant minutes before the shooting and then trying to cover up his and his son’s alleged crimes by setting their car on fire a few blocks from their home, Richardson said.
Richardson showed jurors a still image from inside the restaurant that captured the moment the masked gunman shot Allen in the torso on Sept. 12, 2022. “What you see here captures the muzzle flash in the direction of PnB Rock as he sat with the mother of his child,” Richardson said. “You will hear from her directly what happened inside Roscoe’s,” he promised. “Over the next couple of days, we will review the evidence, and I am confident that you will render a fair verdict.”
Trone’s attorney urged jurors to put their emotions aside and focus “very closely” on the evidence. “This is an unfortunate incident. This young man lost his life and the young woman who witnessed this will never be the same because she had to witness this heinous crime,” McKesson said. “Everything you see and hear will show you that his son acted alone, unfortunately.” The attorney mocked Richardson, who showed jurors a photo of Trone and his son leaving their home together hours before the shooting. He said Roscoe’s “doesn’t take reservations,” so there was no way his client could have predicted that Allen and Sibonhuang would decide to “walk into this restaurant in the heart of South Central Los Angeles wearing all this jewelry” that evening.
“You will not hear any evidence that he planned this with his son. Or that he ordered his son to do this or that he encouraged him to do this. They will have evidence that my client helped his son cover this up. We are not disputing that. What we are saying is that the gunman acted alone,” McKesson said. “That is a terrible thing. That is what it is. Somebody has to pay. They have to pay. But focus on what is not there. Where is the evidence that these people sat down and planned this? Where is the evidence that my client gave his son the gun? Where is the evidence that my client planted this in his son’s head? Where is the evidence that my client ordered his son to commit cold-blooded murder?” McKesson said the elder Tron is guilty of being an accessory after the fact, nothing more. “Pay close attention to the timeline and what is not there,” he said.
The alleged teenage gunman is being tried separately because of his age, sources say. rolling stone His mental competency was an issue in resolving his case. He is scheduled to return to juvenile court for competency determinations on Friday.
In his opening Tuesday, Richardson said Jones was not charged with murder and that jurors should take that distinction into account. He said Jones was seen shaking hands with Allen before he met Trone and that the evidence would show Jones should be convicted of two counts of robbery, one count of conspiracy and one count of possession of a firearm.
Jones’s defense attorney, David Haas, used his opening statement to argue that the prosecution’s claim that Jones had told Tron where Allen was was false. He noted that Allen and Sibonhuang attracted a lot of attention when they walked from their white Mercedes out in front of Roscoe’s house “wearing almost half a million dollars’ worth of jewelry, glistening in the sun.” He said the conspiracy charge required evidence that his client had a “meeting of minds” with Tron, and that prosecutors had only video recordings and phone calls without audio that he called inconclusive. “This is all just speculation, just speculation, and when you can’t pinpoint specific words or actions, we call that an acquittal,” Haas said.
Jurors heard testimony from two Los Angeles Police Department officers late Tuesday about their arrest of Trone’s 17-year-old son at a local park a week before the fatal shooting. The officers told jurors that the teen had a loaded 9mm semi-automatic handgun in his backpack and that he resisted arrest, spat at an officer and asked for medical treatment, which he “refused.” Jurors heard that the teen had been placed under house arrest in the custody of his father shortly before Allen was killed.
In the months leading up to the trial, Trone failed to have the murder charge dropped on the grounds that he did not “order” his son to pull the trigger and that he believed his son may have been frightened by Allen’s actions before the shooting “out of fear for his life.” The judge ruled in March that there was a “reasonable basis” to conclude Trone had held a position of “influence” over his son. “Whether his son fired the gun in a panic is pure speculation,” a former judge said from the bench. “That’s not in the video.”
like rolling stone In the first report, authorities arrested Trone, his teenage son, and his wife, Chantel Trone, in late September 2022 after linking the alleged getaway car seen on surveillance video to a Buick Enclave that was found burned and abandoned a few blocks from the Trone family’s Gardena, California, residence. (Chantel Trone was charged with accessory after the fact and recently accepted a plea deal in her case.)
Allen’s brazen public murder shook the hip-hop industry from coast to coast. The Philadelphia artist, whose melodic flow blended rap and rhythm and blues, gained widespread fame with his triple-platinum 2016 hit single “Selfish.” That same year, rolling stone Dubbed the new artist you need to know, he later found fame with his 2019 hit “Cross Me” featuring Ed Sheeran.
