Story Published:
May 18, 2009 at 9:23 PM PDT
Story Updated:
Jul 13, 2010 at 7:19 PM PDT
An Atlanta man was charged Wednesday with murdering a rapper, who was slain at the Beverly Center hours after arriving in Los Angeles to work on his first CD, but a defense attorney claims it was self-defense.
Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Kristi Lousteau ordered Aubrey Louis Berry, 23, to be jailed in lieu of $5 million bail pending arraignment Friday in connection with Monday’s shooting of Roderick Burton.
Berry is also charged with two counts of assault with a firearm for allegedly firing at two other people who were with the 21-year-old rapper, who went by the stage name Dolla and “was being hyped as the next Tupac [Shakur],’’ according to his publicist.
Defense attorney Howard R. Price spoke to reporters outside the courtroom.
“The allegations are not going to be proven. This is not a murder case. At worst, this is a manslaughter case,’’ he said.
‘This is a case where he [Berry] was acting in self-defense. And if he is not shown to have been acting reasonably in self-defense, but he honestly believed that he needed to use self-defense, at worst it’s manslaughter,’’ the lawyer said.
Sandi Gibbons with the District Attorney’s Office said “the evidence presented by the Los Angeles Police Department today supports the filing of the murder and assault charges. It’s our policy to argue the cases in the courtroom and not on the sidewalk.’’
Berry’s attorney countered that there was already a history between the two men because “Mr. Burton had, along with his crew, attacked and assaulted Mr. Berry at a nightclub in Atlanta [on May 6].’’
“And that is the basis for Mr. Berry’s reasonable apprehension of fear when by happenstance, and I think the district attorney will agree that it was by happenstance, that he bumped into Mr. Burton at the restaurant he happened to be in,’’ Price said.
Berry’s attorney said his client was at P.F. Chang’s in the Beverly Center for a business meeting and went to the eatery’s restroom, where he encountered a “verbally assaultive’’ Burton who “said things that made him very apprehensive about his safety.’’
Friends urged Berry to leave the restaurant immediately, according to his attorney.
“He’s then seen leaving the back door of the restaurant to go to the valet parking, and the videotape shows Mr. Burton and his crew following after,’’ Price said. “And again, they were verbally assaultive, if not otherwise, and the defendant believed that Mr. Burton was attempting to get a gun, and he then reacted reasonably to the apprehension he had that he perceived that his life was in danger.’’
The shooting, which occurred in the valet parking area shortly after 3 p.m. Monday, was apparently not caught on videotape, according to the attorney.
Price said his client — who was taken into custody about 6:15 p.m. Monday by police at Los Angeles International Airport — should have remained at the scene.
“That’s the bad judgment that he made under the circumstances,’’ the attorney said of his client, who he described as a college graduate who had never been arrested before and previously arranged for a flight to attend his sister’s graduation from medical school.
Price said his client — who authorities said had a gun when he was stopped by police at LAX— has a concealed weapon permit issued either by the state of Georgia or the city of Atlanta. He said Berry believed the permit allowed him to carry a concealed weapon in California as he does in Georgia.
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