Moments after a Los Angeles judge ruled that Suge Knight be held on $25 million bail stemming from murder charges, the Death Row mogul collapsed in the courthouse. The unconscious Knight was rushed to a jail hospital ward, the Los Angeles Times reports.
While Knight has allegedly suffered health problems throughout the pretrial hearings – this incident marked the fourth time Knight was taken by ambulance from a courthouse since he was charged with the murder of Terry Carter – Deputy District Attorney Cynthia J. Barnes told the Times she believed Knight “did it in front of the cameras.”
Knight collapsed and slammed his head on a chair during the bail hearing. Knight’s defense attorney Matthew Fletcher said that his client has been dealing with both diabetes and a blood clot, and that Knight’s frequent post-courtroom ambulance rides are a result of the exec not getting the proper medication he needs behind bars. Since he was charged with the January 29th hit-and-run murder of Carter, Knight has been in solitary confinement, restricting his access to the medical care he needs.
After Knight initially turned himself in to face charges of one count of murder, one count of attempted murder and two counts of hit-and-run – he’s since pleaded not guilty to all charges – the Death Row co-founder was hit with a $2 million bail. That bail was soon revoked as prosecutors alerted the judge of Knight’s criminal past and that he was a “possible flight risk, three-strike candidate” and had “possible witness intimidation issues.”
In today’s bail hearing, Barnes argued that even a $25 million bail wasn’t high enough given Knight’s history, at which point the Deputy District Attorney presented a litany of accusations against Knight, including suspicion of money laundering, extortion and threatening a man at gunpoint. Fletcher responded by saying that the defendant was “being treated worse than Charles Manson” and “If his name wasn’t Suge Knight, they wouldn’t have filed this case.”
Knight is accused with running over two men – Carter and Cle “Bone” Sloan, who was also injured by Knight’s vehicle – following an argument at a film shoot associated with the upcoming N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton.