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Cannibalistic Killing Sparks Rap Suit
A grisly killing has rocked Tha Row.
An aspiring rap star accused of brutally murdering and partially cannibalizing a young woman has been slapped with a wrongful-death lawsuit by the mother of the victim, who claims he committed the horrible act at the behest of the label (then known as Death Row Records) to gain gangsta cred.
The lawsuit, filed Friday by Carolyn Stinson in Los Angeles Superior Court, blames Tha Row for providing Antron Singleton, aka the "Big Lurch," with his own apartment, as well as vast quantities of drugs, including PCP, "to encourage [him] to act out in an extreme violent manner so as to make him more marketable as a 'Gangsta Rap' artist."
However, Tha Row's head honcho, Marion "Suge" Knight, denied he or anyone at his company had ever heard of Singleton and claimed the filing was "slander" and "fraud." Knight, who served four-and-a-half years in prison for probation violations before being released in August of 2001 and who has longtime ties to gang members, said any claims of a production deal with Tha Row were wishful thinking on the aspiring rapper's part.
Knight might actually be telling the truth. Stinson's attorney has acknowledged the wrongful-death suit could be based on the mistaken assumption that Singleton was linked to the record label. "We're continuing to investigate," McKesson told Reuters. "If it turns out that Death Row is right--that there is no connection, we will drop them [from the lawsuit] immediately."
Regardless, the brutal facts of the murder case remain the same.
Editor's note: If you have a weak stomach, stop reading now. You've been forewarned.
According to police, on April 10, 2002, officers found Singleton wandering around a Los Angeles street naked, smattered in blood and high on PCP.
A subsequent search of his nearby Figueroa Street apartment turned up a gruesome discovery: the mutilated body of his roommate, 21-year-old Tynisha Ysais.
Ysais was fatally stabbed with a three-inch blade that broke off in her shoulder blade. But even more horrifying, the victim exhibited bite marks on her face as well as on her lung, parts of which had been chewed and torn from her body. Authorities say Singleton committed the act in a sadistic ritual intent on making his reputation in the gangsta world.
"Part of what makes a gangsta rap artist marketable is the fact that the artist is a current ongoing participant in violent gang activities," the suit contends. "Singleton met this criteria and was even more marketable because his songs were as violent as his lifestyle and included rape, murder and ended with him eating his victim's body organs."
After examining the contents of the rapper's stomach, doctors determined he had eaten human flesh. (The ghastly incident even inspired an episode of CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation last year.)
Singleton, a Texas native who moved to Los Angeles to jumpstart a rap career and was recording an album at the time of the killing, is awaiting trial on murder and torture charges. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
Tha Row was also named as a defendant in the suit, as was Stress Free Records and two employees.
"These acts were performed within the course and scope of his employment with the other defendants," the complaint says.
(Originally published 04/14/03 at 10:15 a.m. PT.)
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