PnB Rock’s mother averted her eyes and wiped tears Monday as a prosecutor displayed an autopsy photo of her son during closing arguments in the trial of two men charged in connection with the rapper’s 2022 murder.
“I wasn’t prepared for those pictures. It’s very devastating. I never wanted to see those pictures,” Deannea Allen told Rolling Stone as she left the courthouse in Compton, Calif., on the ninth and final day of testimony in the case. The mother said she only learned about the start of the trial from social media and “moved mountains” to travel from Philadelphia to attend in person before it ended.
“I’m here to get justice. I want justice. This was my son, my child,” Deannea said of the acclaimed musician, born Rakim Allen. “I want the jury to know he has a family who loves him and wants to support him. I learned a lot today.”
In his closing argument, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Timothy Richardson urged jurors to convict defendants Freddie Trone and Tremont Jones for their alleged roles in the high-profile homicide. Richardson argued that Trone, 42, should be found guilty of murder because he knew his 17-year-old son was “impulsive” and “dangerous” and allegedly still sent him inside a Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles restaurant in South Los Angeles on Sept. 12, 2022, with a loaded semi-automatic firearm and a mandate to rob Allen and his fiancée.
Testifying in his own defense on Friday and again Monday, Trone denied the claim by prosecutors that he was his son’s getaway driver. He testified that he left the Roscoe’s parking lot in his Buick Enclave around 1:14 p.m. that day, but that it was a different driver who was behind the wheel six minutes later when the vehicle returned and his son jumped out and walked into the Roscoe’s wearing a ski mask.
Trone’s defense lawyer, Winston McKesson, said his client “steadfastly denies” driving his teen son back to Roscoe’s before the shooting. Speaking to reporters on Monday, McKesson said that Trone claims he departed the Roscoe’s parking lot, drove to the beauty supply shop he owned about two minutes away, put his keys on the counter, went to use the bathroom, and returned to find that his keys and his son were missing. Trone alleges that after the shooting, someone he won’t identify drove him in a burgundy SUV to a parking lot where he located his son and other individuals with his Buick Enclave, McKesson said. The defense lawyer also said that Trone’s co-defendant in the case, Tremont Jones, didn’t hand Trone a gun in the parking lot before the shooting, as prosecutors allege. Trone maintains that the object retrieved by Jones and handed to him under a towel in view of a Roscoe’s surveillance camera was simply a bag of marijuana, McKesson said.
“His lies are ridiculous. That is ridiculous. The surveillance should speak for itself,” Deannea told Rolling Stone after hearing about Trone’s claims related to the burgundy SUV. In his closing on Monday, Richardson said jurors should question why Trone “refused” to give the name of the person who drove him in the burgundy SUV to “find” his son.
“This is the same time that a robbery and a murder is being committed, and you don’t want to tell the jury who [the driver] is? It’s because they don’t exist. It’s another lie,” Richardson argued Monday. “He wants you to just accept what he says. He’s repeatedly lying to your face.”
McKesson told reporters that Trone refused to identify his driver to protect the person after Trone’s wife, and then his mistress, both were charged as accessories after the fact in the case. Both women pleaded no contest under deals with prosecutors.
“The women in this case, at least they took responsibility. But the men, they’re not trying to deal with it. They’re trying to say they had nothing to do with it,” Deannea scoffed outside the courthouse. “It’s unacceptable. My son was a beautiful person. He tried to take care of everyone. Our last conversation was a half-hour when he was on his way to California. He told me about all the good things he was doing. He was just trying to be better, a little more conscious.”
McKesson and the defense lawyer for Jones are due to give their closing arguments in the case on Tuesday. Trone and Jones have pleaded not guilty and deny any wrongdoing. Trone is charged with murder, two counts of robbery, and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery. Jones is facing two counts of robbery and one count of conspiracy. Jurors were instructed Monday that Jones, 46, is no longer facing a firearms charge that was mentioned during opening statements.
The alleged shooter in the case has been charged as a juvenile. As Rolling Stone first reported, his prosecution has been placed on hold due to a finding that he lacks the necessary competency to follow a criminal proceeding. On Monday, Richardson said during his closing argument that the teen had a mental health diagnosis, substance abuse issues, and a criminal history. “Freddie Trone knew the dangers of sending his 17-year-old son in there with a ski mask, semiautomatic weapon and mission,” Richardson argued. He said that during testimony, Trone admitted, “My son is dangerous.” The prosecutor further argued that Trone’s alleged arson of the Buick Enclave a few blocks away from his residence and his alleged attempt to hide out in Las Vegas after the murder showed his “consciousness of guilt.”
Allen’s stunning death rocked the hip-hop community. The Philadelphia-bred artist became a breakout star in 2016 with his triple-platinum single “Selfish.” That same year, Rolling Stone named him a New Artist You Need to Know. He went on to reach crossover fame with his 2019 feature on Ed Sheeran’s “Cross Me.”
After the slaying, Allen’s fiancée Stephanie Sibounheuang faced a barrage of accusations online that her post about their meal at the Roscoe’s restaurant that day led the shooter to their location. When Sibounheuang testified during the trial last week, the since-deleted post was shown to the jury. It didn’t specify which Roscoe’s location she was at and only showed her food. “That social media post was a big issue, but if you think about, on that post, there’s no image of jewelry. There’s no image of PnB Rock. For all the universe knew, Stephanie was with her girlfriends. Stephanie was with her child. Stephanie was with her mother. This post doesn’t give you a reasonable inference, but the defense wants you to believe the entire universe knew PnB Rock was at [the Roscoe’s] at Manchester [Ave.] and Main [Street].”
In her harrowing testimony, Sibounheuang gave her firsthand account of how the hip-hop star pushed her out of the way to save her life when the young shooter opened fire on the couple inside the restaurant just minutes after they received their food. She said the gunman appeared out of nowhere and demanded the couple hand over their jewelry, which she estimated was worth about half a million dollars. She said the gunman told Allen he would execute Sibounheuang first if the musician didn’t comply.
“He said, ‘If you don’t give me the jewelry, I’m going to blow her head off,’” Sibounheuang told jurors. She said the shooter again demanded, “Give me the fucking jewelry,” and appeared to be “inexperienced,” like a “kid who didn’t know what he was doing.”
“He had the gun on my man’s face, on it, touching it,” she recalled. She said Allen’s only movements were to put both hands in the air, with his palms facing out, before he turned his attention to protecting her. “He got shot, and he like pushed me to the wall and threw me under the table. The [gunman] just kept shooting. I was telling him, ‘Stop shooting him, are you trying to kill him?’”
Sibounheuang said the shooter leaned over and began removing jewelry from Allen’s body. She recalled reaching into her bag to find her phone to call for help. “He said, ‘Whoa, whoa, what are you grabbing?’ He was pointing his gun at me. I think he thought I had a gun,” she testified. “I thought I was dead.”