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Cle "Boan" Sloan, one of two men Knight is accused of
deliberately running over in his pickup truck at a hamburger
stand in the Los Angeles suburb of Compton, took the witness
stand at a preliminary hearing in the case.
Prosecutors say Knight traded punches with Sloan through the
window of his vehicle before putting the truck into reverse,
knocking Sloan and another man, Terry Carter, to the ground.
They say he then pulled forward to run over both men.
Carter, 55, later died. Sloan, 51, suffered a badly mangled left
foot and head injuries.
Knight, 49, is charged with murder, attempted murder and two
counts of felony hit-and-run in the Jan. 29 fracas, which
followed an argument on the set of a commercial for the film
"Straight Outta Compton."
On the witness stand at the start of the hearing, Sloan, who
described himself as a "non-active gang member," balked at
giving testimony that would incriminate the defendant, and he
repeatedly said he recalled few of the circumstances surrounding
their confrontation.
“I’m no snitch and I will not be made to be a snitch,” he said.
"I will not be used to send Suge Knight to prison."
Asked by Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Barnes if he could
identify Knight as she pointed to him in the courtroom, Sloan
said, "That doesn't look like Mr. Knight."
Wearing an orange jail uniform and handcuffs for Monday's
proceeding, Knight appeared slightly thinner since his last
court hearing, with a touch of gray in his beard.
If found guilty, the co-founder of Death Row Records would face
a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
Knight has pleaded not guilty. His attorney contended Knight
accidentally ran into the two men as he tried to speed away from
the scene of what he thought was an ambush attempt.
While Sloan denied being able to recount details of the incident
in court, attorneys read from a transcript of a statement he
gave police detectives that night.
In excerpts cited in court, Sloan told police he and Knight had
quarreled on the film set, and the confrontation resumed later
outside a hamburger stand after Sloan overheard Knight
bad-mouthing him.
(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Lisa Lambert and Eric
Walsh)
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