As he heads into a second wrongful death trial involving the fatal 2015 hit-and-run of Compton businessman Terry Carter, Suge Knight is digging in, refusing to let his longtime lawyer, David Kenner, withdraw from the case. A judge ruled Monday that Knight’s resistance meant jury selection for the civil retrial would move ahead Tuesday.
For the last three weeks, Kenner has been asking either Knight or the court to cut him loose. On Monday, Kenner said nothing had changed and he was not prepared to try the case again after an initial proceeding three years ago ended with a hung jury. Kenner again pleaded for his dismissal as Knight appeared by video from the San Diego prison where he’s serving a 28-year sentence for his voluntary manslaughter conviction stemming from Carter’s death. Knight was wearing dark sunglasses and a blue, zip-up jacket as he snacked on something he kept tossing into his mouth throughout the 45-minute hearing.
“I am not ready because I’ve had a remedial breakdown in communication with Mr. Knight,” Kenner said from the defense table in the courtroom in downtown Los Angeles. “There’s a conflict of interest. It is my position that the court should relieve me as counsel, and Mr. Knight should be able to try this case with counsel of his choice.”
Kenner said the defense had not subpoenaed any witnesses, and Knight had not retained an investigator. At back-to-back hearings earlier this month, Kenner told the court that Knight had said something “disturbing” to him during a recent call that led to his request for release. He wouldn’t say what it was. He also told the court Knight did not pay him for the first trial in the civil case back in 2022.
“Your motion to withdraw has been denied, and I stand by that ruling,” Judge Thomas Long said Monday. “It seems to me there’s no reason you can’t do the best you can to cross-examine and examine witnesses and present Mr. Knight’s defense as well as possible. Of course, Mr. Knight is always free to remove you as counsel anytime he chooses. That’s up to him.”
A short time later, Knight raised his hand to catch the judge’s attention amid argument over pretrial motions. Judge Long told Knight it wasn’t customary for defendants to interrupt like that. He instructed Knight to talk to Kenner first.
“But I don’t talk to my counsel,” Knight responded. “I’m trying to communicate on the phone, and no one takes my phone calls. I’m not trying to be disrespectful, I just want to have a fair trial, and I need to communicate,” he said. “Over the weekend, I would call, and nobody ever takes my calls. If the court could let Mr. Kenner know I called to talk, and we need to communicate,” he said, urging Judge Long to force Kenner to take his calls.
At that point, Kenner offered a possible solution, seemingly accepting that the trial is moving ahead over his objection. He asked for a court order giving him one, strictly privileged, unrecorded call with Knight at the end of each court day. “The reason I have not been talking is because Mr. Knight calls on a recorded line, and I don’t like discussing legal strategy on a recorded line,” Kenner told the court. The judge agreed to sign such a request.
At the two hearings earlier this month, Knight appeared by phone only, not video, and admitted he was at odds with his lawyer. Still, he refused to let Kenner walk away. “He’s my attorney, and I’m not getting rid of him,” he said April 4. At one point, Kenner asked Knight to “please discharge me.”
“No, I will not,” Knight responded. “I want to keep everything the same, and I’ll be ready for trial. Thank you, Mr. Kenner. Thank you to all the parties. God bless.”
At the Monday hearing, Judge Long ordered a panel of prospective jurors for jury selection to begin Tuesday. He said opening statements and testimony were expected to begin early next week.
As he exited the courthouse Monday, Kenner said he still believes Knight has a chance to prevail in the long-running civil case. “We have a superb chance of winning in a subsequent trial, and I believe that’s what will happen,” Kenner tells Rolling Stone. He said Knight was ready to testify again in his own defense.
The initial trial over the civil claims brought by Carter’s wife, Lillian Carter, and his daughters, Nekaya and Crystal, ended in a mistrial in June 2022, with jurors deadlocked seven to five in favor of finding Knight liable. Graphic surveillance video depicting the deadly incident was shown repeatedly during the initial jury proceeding in Compton, California. In the footage, Knight’s truck is seen pulling into the driveway of a Tam’s Burgers parking lot on Jan. 29, 2015, just hours after Knight and another man named Cle “Bone” Sloan started a dispute outside a production office for the Dr. Dre and Ice Cube-produced N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton. In the Tam’s video, Sloan is seen approaching Knight’s truck and fighting with him through the driver’s side window. The massive Ford Raptor truck then reverses away from the lot, hurling Sloan to the ground. Seconds later, the truck races back into view, barreling over Sloan, still crumpled on the ground, and fatally mowing down Carter, who had been standing on the sidewalk.
In his first-ever sworn testimony about the incident delivered over a live video link from prison, Knight testified at the first trial that he visited the movie’s production office that day to speak with Dr. Dre, born Andre Young. He testified that police had told him Young “paid somebody” to shoot Knight seven times at Chris Brown’s pre-VMA party in the summer of 2014. Knight claimed Sloan acted aggressively toward him as he was turned away.
Knight, 60, told jurors that Carter, whom he described as a longtime friend, subsequently invited him to a meeting across the street from Tam’s later that day. He claimed Carter told him Young would be present and wanted to give him “some bread” amid a disagreement over Knight’s portrayal in the movie. Knight further testified that he only accelerated and ran over Carter because he feared for his life. He claimed Sloan brandished a gun and threatened him. Sloan, who also was injured in the hit-and-run, denied having a gun during the confrontation. Testifying under a grant of immunity at a criminal hearing in 2015, Sloan said the item in his hands was a two-way radio that he used as a security guard on Straight Outta Compton. (Dre, through a lawyer, previously denied the allegation that he offered money to have Knight killed. “Given that Dre has had zero interaction with Suge since leaving Death Row Records in 1996, we hope that Suge’s lawyer has lots of malicious prosecution insurance,” the lawyer previously said.)
Before the hearing ended Monday, Judge Long asked if there was any chance for a last-minute settlement. Both sides said such talks had broken down. Though Knight previously pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter in connection with Carter’s death, he later claimed his prior public defender “coerced” him into taking the deal because the lawyer was not prepared for trial and Knight was facing a potential life sentence. Knight tried to overturn his criminal conviction in a filing that was rejected by a judge in March. He has since vowed an appeal.