The Nevada Supreme Court ruled last week that the rhymes a rapper wrote in a California jail awaiting extradition would be entered as evidence in the appeal of his robbery and murder trial. Deyundrea “Khali” Holmes wrote 18 songs while locked up, but one song in particular tied him to the robbery and murder of a Reno drug dealer.
Holmes and another man targeted Kevin “Mo” Nelson in the 2003 robbery plot, who sold drugs out of a local recording studio. Planning to steal Nelson’s money and drug stash with the help of a third accomplice, Holmes was met with resistance from the man in a parking lot outside the studio writes Courthouse News.
From Courthouse News:
Nelson fought back when his assailants jumped him in the parking lot. “In the fight, Nelson’s pockets were ‘bunny-eared’ (turned inside out),” according to the ruling (parentheses in original). “His assailant tore off Nelson’s shirt and chain necklace, pistol-whipped him, and then tried to drag Nelson from the parking lot into the studio without success. Frustrated, Nelson’s assailant removed his ski mask and said, ‘I’m going to shoot this f@#$ing guy,’ which he did. Nelson staggered, then fell and died.”
Prosecutors seized on a lyric in the song “Drug Deala” which appeared to detail the events of that fateful night. After his arrest in 2008 based on genetic evidence from a cigarette butt and a sentence in 2011 of life without parole, the state’s high court ruled in a 2-1 decision last Thursday (August 22) to uphold the conviction.
Holmes’ defense team argued that the raps in the song were cliched lines used in many other rap songs. The lone judge who voted against using the lyrics as evidence in the appeal trial stated that Holmes’ rhymes were “frequent fodder” in today’s Hip-Hop music.
Holmes’ lyrics that were admitted in the trial as evidence reads as follows, “My attitude sh-tty n-gga you don’t want to test this/I catching slipping at the club and jack you for your necklace/F-ck parking lot pimping. Man I’m parking lot jacking/ running through your pockets with uh ski mask on straight laughing.”
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Photo: Nevada Supreme Court
