By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight remained hospitalized on Wednesday, one day after he was admitted for treatment after pleading not guilty to murder and other charges in a fatal hit-and-run incident, authorities said.
A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s spokesman said he did not know what medical condition Knight, 49, was suffering from or when he might be released from the hospital.
The music executive’s attorney, who appeared with him at an arraignment in Los Angeles Superior Court in Compton on Tuesday, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
Knight, co-founder of influential hip-hop label Death Row Records, was charged with murder, attempted murder and two counts of felony hit-and-run following the altercation in a burger shop parking lot last week in which prosecutors said he ran over two men with his pickup truck, killing one of them.
Attorneys for Knight said he was attacked in the parking lot and was fleeing in fear when he accidentally struck the two men with his vehicle.
A lawyer for the second man struck by Knight’s vehicle, Cle “Bone” Sloan, told the Los Angeles Times that Sloan had been released from a hospital but had not recovered from his injuries.
“He’s really not doing well at all,” attorney Michael Shapiro told the paper. “I don’t see how the guy lived.”
Sloan’s attorneys have said he is considering filing a civil lawsuit against Knight.
Authorities said the incident began when Knight and one of the victims began throwing punches at each other through the window of the rap tycoon’s Ford F-150 Raptor pickup before he put the vehicle in reverse, knocking the man to the ground.
Knight then pulled forward, running over one man and striking the second before leaving the scene, according to the sheriff’s department.
Knight, who previously served time behind bars for violating terms of past sentences, was shot and wounded at a Los Angeles nightclub last year. He pleaded not guilty in November to a charge stemming from accusations he stole a camera from a celebrity photographer.
He was free on bail in that case at the time of the parking lot altercation. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Peter Cooney)
