Suge Knight has reached a settlement with the family of the man he killed when running over him in a 2015 incident.
According to Rolling Stone, Suge agreed to pay Terry Carter’s family $1.5 million during a court hearing on Tuesday (April 29) – despite just days prior looking to go to trial instead. This would have been a retrial, as the last one was declared a mistrial in 2022, with jurors deadlocked 7-5 in favor of finding Knight liable.
The money will be split evenly between Carter’s widow, Lillian, and their two daughters Nekaya and Crystal at $500k each.
Before approving the deal, Knight asked about going to trial without his lawyer, David Kenner, who was trying to withdraw for the last few weeks. Judge Long said jury selection would begin Thursday regardless, stating, “There would be no further continuances. This case is out of time.”
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While Lillian didn’t necessarily want to settle, she told the outlet that this outcome is better than sitting through another trial.
“I’m not happy with the outcome of it, at all, but I don’t want to give him another opportunity to put on a clown show and act like a bitch,” she said. “Maybe somebody will shank him in jail.”
Suge Knight pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter for killing 55-year-old Terry Carter after an argument on the set of Straight Outta Compton on January 29, 2015. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen sentenced him to 28 years in prison a month after his plea, which he is currently serving.
Carter’s family then sued him for the wrongful death, with their lawyer saying in 2022 that they should be paid $81 million.
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For his part, Suge maintains the death was an accident.
“Terry was a friend of mine. It definitely wasn’t done intentionally. It wasn’t done to bring harm to him,” Knight told Rolling Stone following the settlement. “One of the reasons I settled [is] I got respect for Terry, so that means I’ve got respect for his family. I didn’t want to put the family through more pain.
He continued: “It’s not that I did anything wrong. I never would have. But I do owe the family an apology because of this thing they had to go through.”
