Two years after rapper PnB Rock was killed while eating lunch with his girlfriend at a Los Angeles restaurant, the father who instructed his then 17-year-old son to rob and kill the artist was sentenced to 31 years to life in prison on Monday.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Connie Quinones sentenced 42-year-old Freddie Lee Trone to 31 years to life in prison, per a news release from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
A jury had found Trone guilty on Aug. 7 of one count of murder, two counts of robbery, and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery.
A second defendant, Tremont Jones, who had been found guilty of two counts of second-degree robbery and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Prosecutors alleged Jones tipped Trone off to the rapper’s presence and his jewelry.
A third defendant, Trone’s wife, Shauntel Trone, pleaded no contest to accessory after the fact in July. She is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 16.
Trone’s son, a juvenile at the time of the killing, was charged with murder but is in the custody of the juvenile system. A judge has found that he is not currently competent to stand trial.
Both sides at Trone’s trial agreed that the teen walked into Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles in South Los Angeles in September 2022 and shot the Philadelphia hip-hop star while robbing him of his jewelry.
The prosecution said he acted on his father’s orders, while the defense said Trone was only an accessory after the fact. His attorney, Winston McKesson, disagreed with the guilty verdict last month and is planning to file for an appeal.
“There was no evidence produced that [Trone] conspired to commit murder,” he told The Associated Press after the verdict.
“There is no evidence he gave his son a gun, and no evidence he told him to shoot the guy. The only evidence the jury found is that he dropped him off and picked him up.”
PnB Rock, born Rakim Hasheem Allen, was best known for his 2016 hit “Selfish” and various guest appearances on other artists’ songs, including YFN Lucci’s 2017 hit “Everyday We Lit,” Meek Mill’s “Dangerous” from 2018, and Ed Sheeran’s “Cross Me” in 2019.
Allen was 30 when he was fatally shot on Sept. 12, 2022, during the robbery at a Roscoe’s House of Chicken ’N Waffles in South Los Angeles.
A month after the shooting, Stephanie Sibounheuang, Allen’s girlfriend and mother to their daughter, said he saved her life. “My man saved my life, throwing me under that table,” she wrote on Instagram.
“I’m not supposed to be here but bc (because) of him. I am.”
The couple’s daughter was four years old when her father was killed.
“Today, justice has been served with the sentencing of two men for the tragic and senseless murder of Rakim Hasheem Allen, also known to many as the talented rap artist PnB Rock,” district attorney George Gascón said.
“His life was cut short by an act of violence that no family should have to endure,” Gascón added.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.