WATCH LIVE: Murder trials for Jacksonville rapper Ksoo, friend continue
Hakeem Robinson - also known as Ksoo - and Leroy Whitaker are being tried together with separate juries.
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Attorneys finished delivering their opening statements to the jurors on Wednesday evening.
Charles McCormick Jr. – better known as 'Lil Buck' — was shot and killed in 2020 in what investigators believe was a gang-related attack outside an Arlington shopping center.
RELATED: What to know as accused Jacksonville gang members at the center of deadly drill rap beef go on trial
Robinson is charged with
1st degree murder as a criminal gang member
While Whitaker is charged with
1st degree murder as a criminal gang member,
burglary with assault or battery
home invasion robbery
Both Robinson and Whitaker are alleged to be a part of the ATK gang.
Investigators allege Robinson and Whitaker sought to kill McCormick Jr. because he made a rap song that dissed the late rapper Willie Addision (Big Goon), who is also Robinson's half-brother.
During opening statements, both Robinson's and Whitaker's attorneys alluded that the state's evidence in this case came as a result of plea deals, including with Robinson's dad, Abdul Robinson Sr., and suspect Dominique Barner.
'You're going to learn that Blue (Abdul Robinson Sr.), this ain't his first time cooperating with law enforcement. He's done that before. So he has experience. He knows that when he's in trouble and he's caught, if I say what the government wants to hear, I get out. He's done it before and he's going to do it again in this courtroom,' Tara Kawass, Defense attorney for Hakeem Robinson, said.
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'What you're going to learn is that Dominique Barner came in on January 15th, and he told just enough about himself to get him off this case,' Julie Schlax, attorney for Whitaker, said. 'They let him go.'
During the prosecution's opening statements, Assistant State Attorney Joel Cooper said that the evidence will show the motivation behind the murder.
'This was a group of individuals who knew one another, we're close to one another, that were family. Every single one of them that participated in this crime, were members of ATK. The local rap group. All but one of them were related by blood,' Cooper said.
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