Nearly five years after Pop Smoke’s tragic killing in Hidden Hills, the only adult defendant in the case has accepted a plea deal.
Corey Walker, 24, pleaded guilty Wednesday in a Los Angeles court to voluntary manslaughter and home invasion robbery. He will serve 29 years in prison, with an added gun enhancement on the robbery charge. As part of the agreement, prosecutors dropped the murder charge but added the manslaughter count this week.
Walker also admitted to robbing a woman who was with Pop Smoke the night of the fatal shooting. The two-year sentence for those charges will run concurrently with his 29-year term.
The trial was set to move forward next week, with jury selection already underway. Walker is scheduled for sentencing on Feb. 21. In court, he admitted to arming a juvenile with a 9mm pistol before the deadly robbery at the California Airbnb Pop Smoke had rented.
He also confessed to selling the rapper’s stolen Rolex watch for $2,000. Walker’s grandmother and four-year-old daughter were present during the hearing.
Walker’s attorney, Kellen Davis, maintains that his client never intended for Pop Smoke to be harmed.
“All of the evidence supports this position,” Davis told Billboard. “As confident as we were of an acquittal on the murder charge, under California law, sentencing enhancements could have led to life in prison for robbery or burglary. This case highlights a system that can impose extreme penalties on young men for crimes they did not directly commit. Given the circumstances, this is the best possible outcome for our client.”
Walker and three juveniles broke into Pop Smoke’s Airbnb on Feb. 19, 2020. The Brooklyn rapper was shot multiple times after a confrontation in a bedroom, where he was staying with a woman. Authorities later revealed that the attackers tracked the address from a gift bag Pop Smoke had posted on Instagram hours before.
At just 20, Pop Smoke was a rising star and a leading figure in Brooklyn drill music. His influence had already begun shaping the sound of hip-hop, leaving a lasting impact on the genre.
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