face burgundy.” Ignoring the basic distinction between author and narrator, prosecutors invited the grand jurors to conflate Deandre Mitchell with his musical persona, Laz Tha Boy. Prosecutors didn’t present a single arrest or conviction to establish Mitchell’s association with a criminal gang, and with conflicting eyewitness testimony - and no physical evidence connecting him to the shootings, according to defense attorney John Hamasaki - prosecutors elected to introduce something else: Mitchell’s violent gangsta rap videos and lyrics, which were presented to the grand jury as evidence of his criminal behavior.Īlthough some of the videos were made years earlier - and none included specific details about the shootings he was charged with - they did contain graphic depictions of violence, including lyrics such as “If I see him I’m gonna murk him / three round burst leave a. Mitchell’s case dates to October 2012, when he was indicted for his alleged role in two gang-related shootings that occurred that year.
For 16 months, Bay Area rapper Deandre Mitchell - better known as Laz Tha Boy - has been sitting in a jail cell faced with a decision no artist should have to make: whether to defend his innocence at trial, knowing his music likely will be used as evidence against him, or take a plea bargain and admit to crimes he maintains he did not commit.
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