Jimmy Henchman, a hip-hop talent agent who once managed Akon and Brandy, could soon face charges in connection with the murder of a 50 Cent affiliate that could get him the death penalty, a federal prosecutor said yesterday. More details after the jump…
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Prosecutors aim to charge James “Jimmy Henchman†Rosemond, 47 — the owner of Czar Entertainment — in connection with a 2009 Bronx murder, court documents and sources said.
“[Federal prosecutors] are in the process of putting together charges against Mr. Rosemond for a death penalty-eligible offense,†Assistant US Attorney Todd Kaminsky told Brooklyn federal Judge John Gleeson.
The murder that Rosemond may soon be charged in connection with took place in 2009, when two of his associates allegedly gunned down a man who was accused of assaulting Rosemond’s son. Victim Lowell Flecher was associate of rap star 50 Cent.
Rosemond’s associates, Rodney Johnson and Brian McCleod, already are facing murder and weapons charges in Manhattan federal court stemming from Fletcher’s fatal shooting.
Fletcher was gunned down with a .22 caliber firearm at Jerome and Mt. Eden Avenues in The Bronx, court documents show.
Prosecutors say that Johnson and McCleod fatally shot Fletcher in exchange for a promised payment of narcotics.
Rosemond has been behind bars awaiting trial on unrelated charges unveiled last year that he used his music industry business to smuggle kilos of cocaine from Los Angeles to New York and launder drug money.
The Drug Enforcement Administration probe was aided by informants who were once high-ranking members of Rosemond’s organization, the feds said.
Gerald Shargel, Rosemond’s high-profile defense attorney, had been negotiating a possible plea deal on the 2011 drug charges with Brooklyn federal prosecutors.
“I’m pressing forward with discussion that could resolve the case,” Shargel told the judge yesterday.
But the new charges Rosemond faces could complicate a plea deal on the cocaine-trafficking case.
Yesterday’s developments were not the first time that allegations have arisen suggesting connections between Rosemond and a shooting linked to disputes in the hip-hop community.
Last year, a man serving life in prison claimed that he shot and injured rapper Tupac Shakur in 1994.
In a statement posted on AllHipHop.com, Dexter Isaac apologized for the infamous near-fatal attack and claimed he shot Shakur at the direction of Rosemond.
“I want to apologize to his family [Tupac Shakur] and for the mistake I did for that sucker [Jimmy Henchman],” said Isaac’s statement, written last spring from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Shakur — who was born in East Harlem but made his career in Northern California — survived the attack, only to be shot dead on Sept. 13, 1996, in Las Vegas.
