News broke back in August that Suge Knight was being indicted for allegedly threatening to kill Straight Outta Compton director F. Gary Gray over a dispute with how he was portrayed in the film. The reports began to spread during the opening phases of Knight’s upcoming homicide trial, leading to an indictment for the threats. The details of the alleged threats weren’t known the time, but now details have been released publicly via court records in the LA Times, showing that Gray recieved a phone call during filming of Straight Outta Compton from Knight. The testimony from detectives indicates that Knight was reportedly upset with his portrayal in the film and had received no compensation:
Eventually, Gray hung up. At least two more phone calls came, but Gray ignored them. A text message soon followed.
“I will see u in person … u have kids just like me so let’s play hardball,” Knight, 52, wrote, ending the message with a pair of expletives and a racial slur, according to court records…
“I’m from Bomton,” Knight wrote, using well-known Bloods slang. “I’m a Blood criminal street gang member from the city of Compton … Time has arrived Faith in God keep ppl safe. The Devil’s Money can’t save No 1.”
Knight is a member of the Mob Piru set of the Bloods gang, according to detectives. He also wrote that he would “make sure” Gray, Young and Ice Cube — another N.W.A member and actor whose real name is O’Shea Jackson — would receive “hugs,” slang for physical violence, according to testimony given by detectives.
According to the LA Times, the incident left the director “shaken” and seemed unwilling to talk about it or the film. According to the court records, Gray said he couldn’t remember details about the messages from Knight and seemed reluctant to confirm that the threats happened at all:
“I can’t say I remember being threatened by him specifically,” Gray said, according to court records.
Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Barnes told the grand jury that Gray was clearly afraid and was lying under oath. “He’s perjuring himself because he’s that afraid.”
The details made public on Friday led to the indictment against Knight, though his defense team denied the allegations and shared the belief that the phone used to send the text messages to Gray did not belong to Knight and that the testimony given was not enough to indict him according to the LA Times:
The gang references in the texts sound “like law enforcement language,” said Banos, who also pointed to Gray’s testimony as a sign her client should not be indicted.
“It was basically just feeding the grand jury what it needed to be fed in order to get an indictment,” she said of the testimony of police officers contained in the transcripts.
Knight has also denied the homicide charges against him, noting that the January 2015 incident where Knight ran over two men with his truck, killing one, was self defense and that a hitman paid by Dre was at the scene — a claim that Dre has denied through his own legal team.
Gray did not want to be involved in the case according to the LA Times report, appearing “extremely agitated as well as extremely frightened” according to police on the day of the incident and attempting to evade answer questions about the incident during his testimony. Gray also asked to be escorted to and from the courthouse according to detectives, wanting protection from the media and “Knight’s gang members” according to the LA Times.
(Via LA Times)
