COMPTON, Calif. (AP) — A man charged with murder vehemently denied in court testimony that he sent his 17-year-old son into a Los Angeles restaurant in 2022 to rob and kill hip-hop star PnB Rock.
“I understand you’re trying to put together your story,” Freddie Trone told a prosecutor during cross-examination in a Compton, California, courtroom at his trial Monday before closing arguments began. “I never had nothing to do with it. I wasn’t there. I didn’t tell nobody to do nothing. I didn’t hand nobody no gun.”
Trone had not been asked directly about his guilt, but had grown increasingly frustrated with questioning from Deputy District Attorney Timothy Richardson and heatedly volunteered the denial.
“How is this relevant to trying to tie me to something?” Trone asked the prosecutor at one point. He later shouted, “for the fifth time!” after answering a question about encountering his son after the shooting.
The defense made the rare and risky move of putting the Trone, 42, on the stand as he faces one charge of murder, two counts of second-degree robbery and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery. He was the only defense witness called.
Trone acknowledged on the stand that the crimes were “heinous” and that his son, who is in the juvenile justice system and has not been tried, was “dangerous.”
Richardson seized on both during his closing argument, saying, “But you send your 17-year-old son with knowledge of the problems he possesses to do this?”
Richardson repeatedly spoke with extra emphasis, as if in disbelief, when he said to jurors, “his son” or “his biological son.” The Associated Press does not typically name minors who are accused of crimes.
PnB Rock, the Philadelphia rapper whose legal name is Rakim Allen, was best known for his 2016 hit “Selfish” and for guest appearances on other artists’ songs such as YFN Lucci’s “Everyday We Lit” and Ed Sheeran’s “Cross Me” with Chance the Rapper.