(WORDS: CIARA P & PETER K)
A man who’s already behind bars for life has confessed to participating in an attack on Tupac Shakur at a New York City recording studio in November 1994, two years before the rapper was gunned down in Las Vegas. After sustaining five gunshot wounds in the attack,Shakur would check himself out of the hospital and attend the sexual abuse trial that would send him to jail one year later.
Until his death in 1996 ‘Pac maintained that Notorious B.I.G and Sean Combs (Diddy) were someway connected to the shooting and even named former B.I.G. associate James “ Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond in the song “Against All Odds.”
On Wednesday, Dexter Isaac said that Rosemond paid him $2,500 to rob Shakur and also claims that he still has all the jewellery he stole from the rapper except for one diamond ring. Furthermore, he says, he still has one of Shakur’s chains taken during the attack.
“In 1994, James Rosemond hired me to rob 2Pac Shakur at the Quad Studio,” Isaac said via written statement. “He gave me $2500 plus all the jewelry I took, except for one ring, which he wanted for himself. It was the biggest of the two diamond rings that we took. He said he wanted to put the stone in a new setting for his girlfriend at the time, Cynthia Ried. I still have as proof the chain that we took that night in the robbery.”
Manager of rapper ‘Game’ and Czar Entertainment founder James Rosemond was indicted last month for his alleged role in a cocaine ring and during questioning he pegged Isaac as a government informant who was dishing out faulty information while incarcerated for other crimes. Issac- who is currently serving a life sentence for murder, robbery, fraud, and witness intimidation, spoke to AllHipHop.com and explained that he was comfortable going on record about the incident since the statute of limitations had expired and nobody can be prosecuted for the crime. Issac stated that he decided to confess in order to prove Rosemond’s involvement and to clear his conscience for the shooting.
“I want to apologize to his family [Tupac Shakur] and for the mistake I did for that sucker [Jimmy Henchman], I am trying to clean it up to give [Tupac and Biggie’s] mothers some closure.”
An arrest warrant was issued for Rosemond on the drug charges, but he is not yet in custody. Meanwhile, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said that detectives have opened an investigation into the original confession and plan to interview Dexter Isaac over his allegations.
On June 16th- the day that marked Tupac’s 40th birthday, Rosemond’s lawyer released a statement denying his client’s involvement in the robbery/shooting of Tupac Shakur. His lawyer Jeffry Lichtman spoke to New York Daily News saying that; “It’s a flat out lie, Dexter Isaac is not claiming this 17 years later to clear his conscience. He’s doing it because he’s told anybody who will listen he doesn’t want to die in prison. He has kids and wants to work off his sentence. He can’t be trusted.”
