| HN Mirror

There aren't any articles I'm aware of that are written neutrally on the case. The media I've seen is either from rap news sites or his defense attorney .. both of which have obvious bias. The public record from the case would probably be the best source.

There seems to be a concerted effort to push the narrative that Drakeo is a victim in all of this. That wasn't true from my perspective (and I think for most of the Jury). The issue we had with the case was that the facts didn't rise to the level that the DA was charging. I can try to shed some light on the other side of the argument that seems to be missing. This is by no means a complete summary .. there were over 46 charges in the case including murder, burglary and witness intimidation.

Drakeo ran what was referred to as the "burn house" for the 2Greedy group. Apartments that were used as a gang house. Notable to the case, these apartments had communal guns that were furnished by the group for anyone to use. Solo confirmed this via testimony. The murder weapon Boyd used was one of these communal guns. There was also video evidence of Drakeo and his brother stealing guns from businesses on separate occasions for communal use (note neither was the murder weapon). The second iteration of this burn house was raided by the police. They recovered around 8 or 9 illegal weapons (including an AK variant). Then there were the group text messages found during discovery. Drakeo sent explicit messages calling on 2Greedy members to bring guns with them and to be ready to use them when they were with him. He called for members to "step up" and be proactive. There were lists of core gang members, the criteria seeming to be who was willing to proactively commit crime.

The night of the murder, there did appear to be a plan to go to a party with the express intent of killing another rapper. This was confirmed by Boyd (shooter #1) in jailcell recordings. Solo, Drakeo and Kellz (shooter #2) were in one of the cars. Boyd had his own car. Cell phone tower records, testimony, and video surveillance all corroborate. The video evidence taken from the parking lot where the murder occurred shows coordination between the group to position themselves strategically near the only exit. In the video, they wait around .. a group from a rival gang of Kellz's walks by .. Kellz and Boyd open fire. The general consensus of the Jury was that this was a case of Drakeo "playing at being a real gangster" without the actual intent to kill. One of the reasons being that they were targeting someone (another rapper) who was very clearly not going to be at the party. Given that the person who was murdered was not the person who was intended to be the target, we couldn't find the intent to kill prong of murder applicable for Drakeo.

The two remaining charges he faces are Gang Conspiracy and Shooting From a Motor Vehicle. Gang Conspiracy because he very clearly contributed to, if not created, the environment in which the murder took place. Shooting From a Motor Vehicle because he was in the car that one of the shooters shot out of. The law is incredibly broad on that second one .. he doesn't actually have to fire the gun.

The DA overreached with the charges, but make no mistake these guys are criminals ..