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COMPTON, Calif. — The two sides at the murder trial in the killing of Philadelphia hip-hop star PnB Rock agree that a 17-year-old boy walked into Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles restaurant in South Los Angeles, shot the rapper twice in the back and once in the chest.
Both agree that the boy’s father, Freddie Trone, the defendant in the trial, helped his son after the shooting and tried to cover up the killing.
But in the two-week trial’s closing arguments set for a Compton, California, courtroom on Monday, prosecutors will argue that Trone sent the boy into the restaurant with a gun and with orders to rob PnB Rock. The rapper, 30, was eating with his fiancee, the mother of his 4-year-old daughter.
Trone’s lawyer says he is in no way guilty of murder, and has emphasized that he was not in the restaurant and did not pull the trigger. He said the evidence points to his son acting alone.
Trone’s son is in custody of the county’s juvenile justice system, and a judge has found that he is not currently competent to stand trial.
The Associated Press does not generally name minors accused of crimes.
PnB Rock, whose legal name is Rakim Allen, was best known for his 2016 hit “Selfish” and for making guest appearances on other artists’ songs such as YFN Lucci’s “Everyday We Lit” and Ed Sheeran’s “Cross Me” with Chance the Rapper.
The trial in his killing, not held in the downtown courthouse that is home to most high-profile proceedings, has attracted little attention. The gallery has remained nearly empty, with Rolling Stone the only media outlet giving it regular coverage.
FBI agents arrested Trone in Las Vegas more than two weeks after the Sept. 12, 2022, shooting in Las Vegas. He has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder, two counts of second-degree robbery and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery.
A co-defendant who is not charged with murder, 46-year-old Tremont Jones, has pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery, one count of conspiracy, and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Prosecutors allege Jones tipped off Trone to the rapper’s location, and showed jurors surveillance video of the two men talking outside the restaurant minutes before the killing.
Allen’s fiancee, Stephanie Sibounheuang, was the trial’s most dramatic witness. She said she had a “bad feeling” about the situation before they walked into the restaurant. The couple was set to fly home to Atlanta later in the day.
She tearfully testified that the two had just gotten their food at Roscoe’s when the ski-masked shooter appeared, put his gun in Allen’s face, and demanded all the couple’s jewelry, which she said was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Sibounheuang said he seemed like a kid “who didn’t know what he was doing.”
She said the shooter then fired on Allen, who pushed her out of the way and shielded her to protect her as he was shot. She called him a “hero” who saved her life.
The masked shooter then collected a watch and other jewelry off Allen.
Surveillance footage showed that he fled about a minute after entering.
Sibounheuang put pressure on Allen’s wounds to try to stop the bleeding, as did the first police officer who arrived at the scene, but the rapper was later declared dead.
An autopsy report states that Allen was shot once in the chest and twice in the back.
Investigators found that Allen had a gun on him at the time, but said he did not pull it out before he was shot.
Sibounheuang posted a picture of the couple’s food on Instagram shortly before the shooting, but she testified that she removed the tag on it that would have shown which of the six Southern California Roscoe’s restaurants where they were eating.
Authorities initially said that post might have led to the robbery and shooting, but later backed off and instead blamed Jones for leading Trone and his son to the restaurant.
Surveillance footage from later in the day showed Trone and his son entering an apartment, and leaving soon after with the son wearing different clothes and holding a trash bag.
Prosecutors allege Trone set the getaway car on fire a few blocks from their home as part of a cover-up.
Trone’s wife and the teen’s stepmother, Shauntel Trone, was also arrested shortly after the shooting. Shortly before the trial she pleaded no contest to being an accessory after the fact.