The man charged with sending his armed 17-year-old son into a Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles restaurant to rob celebrated rapper PnB Rock was found guilty of felony murder, two counts of robbery and one count of conspiracy on Wednesday. The jury took less than four hours to decide Freddie Trone, 42, orchestrated the deadly robbery that claimed the life of the musician, born Rakim Allen, and acted as his son’s getaway driver. Trone’s co-defendant Tremont Jones, 46, also was found guilty of two counts of robbery and one count of conspiracy.
Prosecutors alleged Jones was the one who tipped Trone off to the rapper walking into the Roscoe’s with both his fiancée Stephanie Sibounheuang and a half-million dollars’ worth of jewelry on September 12, 2022. “I’m elated,” Allen’s mom Deannea Allen told Rolling Stone moments after the verdict was read. “I wanted to jump up and scream, ‘Hallelujah.
’ I’m so happy it was quick. We got justice for Rakim. I feel better knowing they’ll be in jail for a long time.
” The jury foreperson, Edwin Lovo, tells Rolling Stone that the panel of four women and eight men focused on the surveillance video of the Buick Enclave that delivered the alleged teen shooter to the scene and picked him up minutes later. Trone testified in his own defense that he was not in the car at the point. Lovo said the jury zoomed in on video of the vehicle fleeding from the scene and identified Trone in the driver’s seat based on his clothing.
“We could clearly see it was him,” Lovo said. In closing arguments this week, Deputy District Attorney Timothy Richardson said that Trone knew his son was “dangerous” when he plotted the robbery that quickly turned deadly. Trone’s defense lawyer, Winston McKesson, argued that the dad was at the Roscoe’s minutes before the shooting to “drum up” business for his beauty supply shop and buy marijuana.
He said Trone’s son swiped his car keys from the beauty supply shop minutes later and arrived at the Roscoe’s for the deadly shooting without his knowledge. Editor’s picks Every Awful Thing Trump Has Promised to Do in a Second Term The 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time The 50 Worst Decisions in Movie History That short six-minute timespan between when Trone left the Roscoe’s parking lot at 1:14 p.m.
that afternoon and when his Buick Enclave was seen on surveillance returning to the scene was a major focus of the trial. Richardson argued that during that six minutes, Trone armed his son with a semi-automatic gun, a ski mask, and a robbery plot. McKesson urged jurors to scrutinize the surveillance video showing the shooter exiting the car outside the Roscoe’s in South Los Angeles.
He said the teen was seen exiting the Enclave from the seat behind the driver, entering and exiting the Roscoe’s, and running back to the closest backseat door before hesitating and circling around to the backseat on the driver’s side. He said that proved there were “more people in the car” and supported Trone’s testimony he wasn’t there. The jury rejected that argument.
In his final rebuttal after McKesson spoke, Richardson told jurors that the six critical minutes simply weren’t enough time for Trone’s version of events. He argued that the surveillance video of the Enclave from the neighborhood “shows you where the vehicle went,” and a round trip to Trone’s shop several more blocks away “was impossible.” “In six minutes, the defense want you to believe that [the teen shooter] rounded up his boys, got a strap, hopped in his dad’s car, and drove back to the Roscoe’s,” Richardson argued.
“Coincidence? No. Coordinated acts? Yes.” Richardson delivered the bulk of his closing argument on Monday, going over the many surveillance videos that pieced together Allen’s final hours and the aftermath that included Trone’s movements before he admittedly burned the Enclave a few blocks from his wife’s residence after the shooting.
On Tuesday, McKesson argued that with “all these videos” collected by investigators, the only time his client is seen getting into the vehicle is when he left the Roscoe’s parking lot after speaking with Jones for the three minutes leading up to 1:14 p.m. The lawyer said the “covered” item that Jones handed Trone during the meeting was a bag of marijuana, not a gun supplied for an alleged conspiracy to commit robbery.
Related Ed Sheeran Promises 'Heartbreaking' Song for Upcoming Christmas Cartoon PnB Rock's Murder Trial Hinges on 'Six Minutes,' Jury Told in Closing Arguments PnB Rock Murder Trial: Mom Weeps in Court, Calls Defendant's Testimony ‘Ridiculous’ “He told you why he buys the weed. He said it’s because smoking marijuana does a better job to balance his son’s chemical imbalance and has a better total effect than Adderall,” McKesson said, referring to the teen’s previously discussed diagnoses. The lawyer also used his final address to jurors to fault investigators for not collecting surveillance video from the area around Trone’s beauty shop, about a half-mile away.
He argued such video would have backed up Trone’s claim that his car was stolen by his son and that an unidentified person with a burgundy SUV picked him up so he could search for his son. The defense lawyer further argued that prosecutors had no evidence of any communication between Trone and Jones before they met up in the Roscoe’s parking lot about a half hour after Allen fist-bumped Jones as he entered the Roscoe’s with Sibounheuang. “There’s no evidence to show my client was paged to get there, no phone calls, no text messages.
They want you to believe he just intuited that his services on a robbery homicide would be required,” McKesson argued. He claimed investigators had “their mind made up” and “ignored” anything that could prove his client’s innocence. “There’s no evidence that my client planned anything.
You have no evidence that he intended anything,” he said. “This young [shooter] acted independently of his dad. There is no evidence that he controlled that boy.
” Richardson rebutted that he wasn’t required to show that there was extensive pre-planning or even that Jones met with the teen shooter before the homicide. He called the alleged robbery conspiracy a “crime of opportunity” that turned deadly. Richardson called it “astonishing” that Trone admitted he was buying weed for his son to replace prescription drugs.
Richardson urged the jurors to question why Trone never identified the person who allegedly picked him up in the burgundy SUV. “That is the person that can account for those six minutes of Mr. Freddie Trone’s life .
.. He just needs these six minutes of explanation not captured on a camera.
Mr. Freddie Trone didn’t want to give you the name of that person — the sole person to provide an alibi,” Richardson argued. He said the reason was because the driver didn’t “exist.
” Allen’s mother attended the closing arguments but left the courtroom before Richardson showed the video from inside the Roscoe’s one more time for the jury. Speaking to Rolling Stone on Monday, Deannea said it was “devastating” to see the autopsy photo of her son that was shown on a courtroom screen. She called Trone’s alibi story “ridiculous.
” “I’m here to get justice. I want justice. This was my son, my child,” Deannea said.
“I want the jury to know he has a family who loves him and wants to support him.” For his part, Jones said he played no role in the alleged father-son robbery plot. His defense lawyer, David Haas, reminded jurors Tuesday that his client was not charged with murder, only two counts of robbery and one count of conspiracy.
He said Jones was well-known at the Roscoe’s, so the prosecution’s theory that Jones handed Trone a gun in full view of a Roscoe’s security camera made “no sense.” Haas also highlighted the lack of any phone calls or electronic communication the day of the shooting beyond a single 1-second cell phone connection between Trone and Jones that he dismissed as meaningless. “This case is so thin,” Haas said in his closing argument.
“What if Mr. Jones is simply a weed dealer?” The jury of four women and eight men deliberated less than four hours before reaching their verdict. Allen’s stunning death rocked the hip-hop community.
The Philadelphia-bred artist became a breakout star in 2016 with his triple-platinum single “ Selfish .” That same year, Rolling Stone named him a New Artist You Need to Know . He went on to reach crossover fame with collaborations such as his 2019 feature on Ed Sheeran ’s “ Cross Me.
” After the slaying, Allen’s fiancée faced a barrage of accusations that her post about her meal at the Roscoe’s restaurant that day led the shooter to their location. When Sibounheuang testified during the trial, her since-deleted post was shown to the jury. She confirmed it didn’t specify which Roscoe’s location she was at and only showed her food.
Richardson argued it was Jones, not the post, that set the robbery plot in motion. “That social media post was a big issue, but if you think about, on that post, there’s no image of jewelry. There’s no image of PnB Rock,” Richardson argued in his closing on Monday.
“For all the universe knew, Stephanie was with her girlfriends. Stephanie was with her child. Stephanie was with her mother.
This post doesn’t give you a reasonable inference, but the defense wants you to believe the entire universe knew PnB Rock was at [the Roscoe’s] at Manchester [Ave.] and Main [Street].” Trending Watch Jordan Klepper Query Trump Supporters About Kamala Harris on 'The Daily Show' Trump Posts Fan Fiction About Biden Stealing Nomination Back From Harris The Biggest Band in America in 2024 Is .
.. Creedence Clearwater Revival Sam Smith and Alicia Keys Spill Their Feelings Over a Grand Piano in 'I’m Not the Only One' Live Video The jury foreperson told Rolling Stone that the panel concluded Sibounheuang’s post played no role in the murder because it went live only minutes before the shooter entered the restaurant and opened fire.
“In terms of timing, it just wasn’t plausible,” Lovo said. In her harrowing testimony, Sibounheuang gave her firsthand account of how the hip-hop star pushed her out of the way to save her life. “He’s heroic.
He’s a hero. [Other men] would never,” she told Rolling Stone..
