Lawyer: Mall tape will show Dolla a threat to his client
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, May 21, 2009
The lawyer for the alleged killer of Atlanta rapper Dolla said surveillance footage from the mall where Monday’s shooting occurred will prove his client’s innocence.
Los Angeles attorney Howard Price said Aubrey Berry, of Snellville, was acting in self-defense when he shot Dolla repeatedly with a 9 mm handgun.
Rapper Dolla, born Roderick Anthony Burton II. Los Angeles attorney Howard Price said Aubrey Berry, of Snellville, was acting in self-defense when he shot Dolla with a 9 mm handgun.
“He believed [Dolla] was armed,” said Price, who alleges Berry was followed to the scene of the shooting by the victim. According to Los Angeles police, Dolla, born Roderick Anthony Burton II, was unarmed. Price insists it’s coincidental that the two men flew to the same city and ate at the same restaurant (P.F. Chang’s China Bistro) on the same date and time.
“He [Berry] was there [at P.F. Chang’s] first,” said Price, who has not yet seen the surveillance videos. Berry, a music promoter, was dining with associates when he encountered Dolla in the restaurant’s bathroom, the lawyer said.
There, “a threat was made” by the rapper, Price said. Berry’s associates told him he should leave because of Dolla’s affiliation with the Crips street gang, he said.
As his client waited for his car in the Beverly Center’s valet area, Dolla and his cousin, Wilbert Robinson, and another friend, Sidiq Abawi, confronted Berry, Price said.
“He [Berry] believed he was in danger,” the lawyer said.
Berry responded with a flurry of bullets, hitting Dolla multiple times in the back.
The shooting stems from an altercation roughly two weeks earlier at an Atlanta strip club, Platinum 21, Price said.
“Mr. Berry inadvertently bumped into a woman he didn’t know,” the lawyer said. The woman’s identity is unknown. “It was a stupid, silly incident that should’ve never escalated to this point.”
Dolla’s stepfather, George Viera, said the rapper was in Los Angeles planning a birthday party for his longtime girlfriend, Crystal Jackson. In a case full of alleged coincidences, here’s another: Jackson, Viera said, attends Clark Atlanta University. Berry recently graduated from Clark, according to a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney prosecuting the case.
