A grand jury indicted rapper McKinley Phipps, a.k.a. Mac the Camouflage Assassin, last Thursday bringing him a step closer to trading his camo fatigues for horizontal stripes. Phipps was indicted on a second-degree murder charge in the shooting of nineteen-year-old Barron Victor in a Feb. 21 altercation.

Though Phipps was arrested for first-degree murder, the grand jury downgraded the charge to second-degree murder in their indictment. The No Limit rapper had finished a performance when the incident occurred at Club Mercedes, a notorious Slidell, La., nightclub that has since been shut down. According to reports, Phipps and some friends attacked a friend of Victor shortly after 1 a.m. When Victor came to his aid, he was shot and killed. The rapper was arrested at his Baton Rouge residence later that day.

Phipps' arraignment is set for Wednesday, March 29. "I've spoken with his attorney and he will plead not guilty," said Joseph Tosterud, Assistant District Attorney at St. Tammany Parish and Chief of the Crime Division. "If he pleads guilty, he goes to jail for the rest of his life."

Should a jury find Phipps guilty, the charge also carries a mandatory life sentence. In the meantime, Phipps is being held in a local jail until his arraignment, at which point a state judge may elect to set bail. Tosterud projects a June 5 start date for Phipps' trial.

ANDREW DANSBY
(March 29, 2000)