Suge Knight's Business Partner Pleads No Contest

According to prosecutors, Suge Knight's business partner, Mark Blankenship, illegally sold surveillance footage of Knight's fatal hit-and-run collision to TMZ four years ago. Now he's entered a plea for the case.

As the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office reported earlier this evening (June 12), Blankenship, 58, pleaded no contest to one felony count of conspiracy to obstruct justice. As a result of the plea, he's been sentenced to five years of formal probation and he must pay $55,000 in restitution to Tam's Burgers, which is the place he secured the surveillance footage from.

Blankenship's plea arrives nearly two years after his co-defendant, 38-year-old Toilin Kelly, pleaded no contest to one count of conspiracy to violate a court order on Oct. 12, 2017. She was also sentenced to five years of formal probation in addition to being required to pay $55,000 worth of restitution to Tam's Burgers. She's also got to perform 100 hours of community service.

The video Blankenship and Kelly are alleged to have sold was evidence that was under seal in the murder trial for Knight. Prosecutors allege that Blankenship and Kelly paid $55,000 to TMZ after negotiating prices for over a month.

Knight was sentenced to 28 years in prison after pleading no contest to a charge of voluntary manslaughter last October. Prosecutors say the former Death Row Records CEO killed 55-year-old Terry Carter and Cle "Bones" Sloan in a hit-and-run crash on Jan. 29, 2015.

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