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A former hip-hop and rap promoter was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison plus 20 years for a murder-for-hire plot that a judge described as “heinous” and “vile.”
The federal judge imposed the sentence on James “Jimmy the Henchman” Rosemond, who was found guilty at a December trial in Manhattan.
Rosemond was convicted for his role in ordering a crew of men to kill an associate of the rap group known as G-Unit. The charges stemmed from the 2009 shooting death of Lowell Fletcher. Prosecutors had said the killing was payback for an assault on Rosemond’s son by Fletcher and other G-Unit associates. They said the son was not seriously injured in the assault and Fletcher served prison time for his involvement in it. Upon Fletcher’s release from prison, though, he was killed.
Rosemond, who has represented artists such as The Game and Sean Kingston, already was serving a life sentence for smuggling cocaine in music equipment cases between studios in New York and Los Angeles.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Rosemond bragged to an associate after the killing that he would never be caught because Fletcher was merely a “gangbanger” who died in the Bronx.
“This prosecution has proven Rosemond wrong,” Bharara said in a news release.
In announcing the sentence, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon called Rosemond’s conduct “heinous,” ”vile” and “disgusting.”
Evidence at trial revealed Rosemond to be head of Czar Entertainment, a rap music management company, and also the boss of a large-scale cocaine trafficking organization, prosecutors said.
Rosemond’s lawyer had argued the witnesses against him were unreliable