Lil Phat
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Lil Phat
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Lil Phat and His Fiancee Wanted to Become Homeowners
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Detectives uncovered a complex murder-for-hire plot after Melvin "Lil Phat" Vernell was killed at the hospital where his fiancé was waiting to give birth.
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Lil Phat and his fiancee, Alnese Frazier, were renting a house in Sandy Springs, GA, but had wanted to buy a house together.
In Sandy Springs, Georgia, Northside Hospital is known for its maternity facility. But on June 7, 2012, it was the scene of a violent death: A young man was shot in his car in the parking lot.
The victim, who had four bullet wounds in his back, was pronounced dead in the emergency room. Police identified him using a fingerprint scanner as Melvin Vernell III, a 19-year-old rising rapper known as Lil’ Phat .
“We knew the murder weapon used was a Glock 357 SIG,” JT Williams, a detective with Sandy Springs Police Department, told “The Real Murders of Atlanta,” airing Sundays at 8/7c on Oxygen.
Investigators found shell casings near the crime scene, and inside the victim’s blood-spattered car, police found a handgun that had not been fired, Williams told producers. Witnesses had also described seeing two males in the vicinity of the parking lot shortly before the ambush.
They soon learned Vernell had been at the hospital because of his fiancé, Alnese Frazier — she was on bed rest in the hospital awaiting the birth of their daughter
A search of Vernell’s home revealed it had been ransacked. “You could tell that somebody had been in there looking around,” said Matt McGinnis, a sergeant with Sandy Springs PD. A strong smell of marijuana there suggested drugs may have been seized.
Police were convinced the break-in and the homicide were connected. But how? A call from the Atlanta office of the FBI gave officials a new lead.
A confidential informant named two suspects in the murder. Gary “Eldorado Red” Bradford had significant criminal history and ties to guns and the distribution of drugs in Alabama. Decensae “Griz” White had links to marijuana growers in California and to Bradford.
Investigators obtained warrants for the suspects’ phone records. Call histories showed them together on the day of the shooting near Northside Hospital a couple of hours before the murder.
But two weeks after the homicide, an anonymous tipster called a Shady Springs 911 dispatcher and revealed there may be others involved. They named Bradford and Maurice “Da Boi” Conner, a name not on detectives’ radar, as suspects.
Records showed that Conner had gotten a speeding ticket on June 6, one day before the murder, in Alabama across the border from Georgia. The passenger was a man named Deandre Washington. In a chilling bit of foreshadowing, Conner told the trooper they were going to a funeral in Atlanta. Phone records put Washington and Conner at Northside Hospital at the time of the murder.
Investigators now had four main suspects — and a nagging question: How did they know Vernell’s whereabouts?
As investigators grappled with that question they were shocked to learn the identity of the FBI’s confidential informant. The Audi A7 Vernell was driving when he was killed actually belonged to a truck driver in Covington, Georgia. After buying the vehicle, the truck driver sent it to a car rental business, Global Elite, where it would be paid off in about a year’s time. Mani Chulpayev, who ran the car-leasing business, rented pricey rides to individuals in the entertainment and sports industries, said Gabe Banks, former Deputy DA for Fulton County. Chulpayev was the FBI's tipster.
Chulpayev, who, investigators said, kept books for the Russian mob, had turned informant years earlier. He was not to be questioned in the Vernell homicide case.
But the investigation took a twist, thanks to yet another tipster. This one told Williams he had inside information straight from Washington on the slaying.
“He said Eldorado Red recruited Maurice Conner and Deandre Washington to kill Melvin,” said Williams, adding that the caller knew the kind of murder weapon used. That information had never been released.
The informant also said that Vernell’s car had a GPS locator in it and that “a Russian” renting the car helped them track the victim.
“Mani put trackers in his vehicles and so if someone rented a vehicle and didn't make the payment, he would be able to track the vehicle and get it back,” said Banks.
A task force was formed to retrieve the GPS trackers from Vernell’s car. Records showed “somebody was literally hunting Melvin Vernell down like a dog,” investigators said.
Detectives learned that Vernell, who’d had a gun in his car, “took his onstage personality too far by robbing a marijuana courier, ” according to “The Real Murders of Atlanta.” That put a target on his back — and a murder for hire was set in motion.
But why would Chulpayev provide GPS information and facilitate the murder? Digging into his criminal history they learned that he had just gotten off federal probation for “car trickery”: title fraud and VIN fraud.
They learned Vernell had just been caught in a traffic stop bust and the car he was driving when stopped had turned out to be stolen. He wasn’t going to take the rap for a stolen vehicle charge. His testimony would incriminate Chulpayev, and his court date on the case was set for just days after he was murdered. They now had a motive for why Chulpayey would get involved.
Two months after the shooting, investigators made their last arrest in the case: Mani Chulpayev.
In August 2014 trials began. White received an eight-year sentence and probation in exchange for full cooperation in the case. White identified Washington and Conner as the individuals who carried out Vernell’s murder at Bradford’s instruction.
Washington was sentenced to life without parole. Conner was sentenced to 30 years for conspiracy to commit a crime, and Bradford was sentenced to 25 years . Charges against Chulpayev were eventually dropped .
For more on the case and others, watch “The Real Murders of Atlanta,” airing Sundays at 8/7c on Oxygen.
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A jury has convicted three men in the shooting death of an Atlanta rapper known as Lil Phat.
A jury has convicted three men in the shooting death of an Atlanta rapper known as Lil Phat .
Melvin Vernell III was shot and killed in June 2012 outside a hospital where he was awaiting the birth of his child.
On Friday, prosecutors said the gunman, 25-year-old Deandre Washington, was convicted of murder and other charges and sentenced to life without parole plus 20 years.
Also convicted were 35-year-old Gary Bradford and 29-year-old Maurice Conner on charges of conspiracy and participating in criminal street gang activity. Bradford was sentenced to 25 years in prison, and Connor, 30 years.
Prosecutors say the three men conspired to kill Vernell in retaliation for a drug robbery they believed he had orchestrated. A fourth defendant awaits trial.
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Lil Phat was an up-and-coming rapper prior to his murder.
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Jan. 23 2022, Published 1:43 p.m. ET
A 2020 piece from XXL revealed that of 77 different Hip Hop deaths more than 40 of them were unsolved, which includes high profile cases like the killings of Notorious B.I.G. Big L and Tupac Shakur. Studies conducted have also found that Hip Hop's homicide rate is "higher than any other genre of music."
Sadly, a casualty included in those statistics is Louisiana Rapper, Lil Phat who was shot and killed on June 7, 2012.
XXL reports that while Phat (real name Melvin Vernell III) was sitting in a car in the parking deck of a North Atlanta hospital awaiting the birth of his child, he was gunned down.
The circumstances surrounding his death saw convictions of three men who orchestrated his killing as a retaliation for the rapper allegedly stealing 10 pounds of marijuana.
Five men in total were implicated in Phat's death which includes a "former Russian mobster" and a "former Division II basketball standout."
The team that Prosecuted Phat's murder trial argued that the rapper took the weed from Decensae White, a San Francisco State University point guard along with Gary Bradford, aka "El Dorado" who was also an MC who is believed to have had gang affiliations.
After being robbed by Phat, it was alleged that the two men hired Deandre Washington and Maurice Conner, paying them $10,000 to kill him. It's said that the murderers received GPS coordinates of Phat's car courtesy of Mani Chulpayev, the former mobster who rented out the car to Phat.
All five of the men implicated in Phat's murder denied having any connection to it, with Chulpayev stating that he only knew White as a business partner. Decensae was granted Bail at the time, while the other four implicated individuals stayed in jail.
In 2014, Billboard reported that Washington, Conner, and Bradford were all convicted in their part of Phat's murder. Washington, who is believed to have pulled the trigger, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life without parole plus an additional 20 years on top of that.
Bradford, for being the getaway driver was handed a 25-year-sentence and Connor for being found guilty of hiring the killers got 30.
He joined the ranks of Trill Entertainment along with other hip hop artists like Lil Boosie and Webbie. He was only 19-years-old at the time of his murder where he sustained several gunshot wounds at the hands of Washington.
The Baton Rouge, La. native was featured on Webbie's hit track "Independent" . The song climbed to number 9 on 2008's Hot 100 list. After hearing the news of Phat's murder, Webbie gave his condolences on Twitter : "RIP to my lil brother Phat! Life so f–ked up! TRILL4LIFE."
Born in Baton Rouge, La. Was signed to Trill entertainment at just 14 years of age. Lived from July 25, 1992 to June 7, 2012.
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