Suge Knight agreed to a seven-figure settlement with Terry Carter’s family over a 2015 fatal hit-and-run, ending a legal fight before retrial.
Suge Knight finalized a $1.5 million settlement with the family of Terry Carter in Los Angeles just days before a retrial was set to begin over the 2015 fatal hit-and-run that left Carter dead outside a burger stand during a dispute tied to the filming of “Straight Outta Compton.”
Knight, appearing remotely from prison, agreed to pay $500,000 each to Carter’s widow, Lillian and daughters Nekaya and Crystal, bringing an end to a years-long wrongful death lawsuit that accused the former Death Row Records boss of acting “recklessly, carelessly, and negligently.”
The decision to settle came after Knight’s longtime attorney, David Kenner, moved to withdraw from the case, citing a conflict of interest.
With the retrial looming, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Thomas Long made it clear there would be no more delays.
“There will be no additional continuances. This case is out of time,” Long told Knight, warning he’d have to represent himself if the trial moved forward.
Knight is currently serving a 28-year sentence after pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter in Carter’s death. He said he chose to settle out of “respect” for Carter and his family.
“Terry was a friend of mine. It definitely wasn’t done intentionally. It wasn’t done to bring harm to him,” Knight said. “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. 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.”
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Lillian Carter, however, made it clear she found no peace in the outcome. “It’s hard living without him when I lived all those many years with him. It’s been very, very difficult. I’ve been in pain ever since January 29, 2015, I haven’t had a good day, not one good day,” she said. “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 b####. Maybe somebody will shank him in jail.”
Her daughter Nekaya echoed the emotional toll the case has taken on the family. “I’m relieved it’s finally concluded. It has been a long and emotional journey. We couldn’t put ourselves through that again. I want to move forward, just like my dad always encouraged us to do.”
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