A Los Angeles judge refused to dismiss the murder case against former hip hop mogul Marion "Suge" Knight, the Associated Press reported. The ruling comes even after a key witness in the case, Cle "Bone" Sloan, refused to identify Knight in court.
Knight is charged with murder, attempted murder and hit-and-run after a Jan. 29 incident where he allegedly ran over two men with his pickup truck after an argument in the parking lot of a Tam's Burgers stand in Compton, Calif., according to the Los Angeles Daily News. Sloan survived with injuries, but 55-year-old Terry Carter was killed in the hit-and-run.
When Sloan testified during a preliminary hearing in April, he refused to say that it was Knight who ran the two men over and killed Carter, according to the AP.
But the fourth attorney appointed to represent Knight, Thomas A. Mesereau Jr., argued that the case should be thrown out because Sloan wouldn't directly identify Knight, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Superior Court Judge Stephen A. Marcus denied the motion and stated that Knight should still stand trial because Marcus can't determine the credibility of the witness with just a preliminary hearing alone.
"He doesn't say that it's not him," the judge reasoned.
Knight is still being held on $100 million bail, and Mesereau said he would seek to have it reduced at a July 17 bail hearing.
