Tremont Jones was charged with two counts of robbery, conspiracy to rob the rapper and illegally possessing a firearm as a felon, according to a criminal complaint filed in September. Another suspect, Wynisha Evans, was charged with being an accessory after the fact.
Both Jones and Evans pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were arraigned at the Compton Courthouse last month, said Venusse Dunn, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Authorities had arrested the pair in May in connection to PnB Rock’s killing. However, since charges had been filed in court as a separate case, apart from the main murder case, Jones and Evans remained largely unknown to the public. The new suspects’ charges were brought to light this week after Rolling Stone attended their most recent hearing in Compton on Monday.
The Times could not immediately reach attorneys for Jones and Evans.
PnB Rock, 30, whose legal name was Rakim Allen, had been dining at the Roscoe’s House of Chicken & Waffles location on Manchester Avenue with his girlfriend, Stephanie Sibounheuang, on Sept. 12 when a 17-year-old boy walked up to their table and demanded jewelry and other valuables, prosecutors alleged in court documents. The jewelry was valued at “several hundreds of thousands of dollars,” prosecutors said.
After Allen refused the teen’s demands, prosecutors alleged, the youth shot the seated rapper once in the chest, then twice more in the back. Seconds later, the teen allegedly threatened to shoot Sibounheuang in the head and took several pieces of jewelry off Allen’s body before fleeing the restaurant with his father, suspected getaway driver Freddie Lee Trone.
In the new court filings, prosecutors accused Jones of taking part in the plot to rob Allen. Jones allegedly met Trone at a parking lot near the Roscoe’s and talked for several minutes before handing Trone an object covered in a towel, which prosecutors allege was a firearm. Trone drove off and returned to the area to drop off his teen son, who was wearing a ski mask and armed with a gun, prosecutors alleged. Jones allegedly stuck around, eventually leaving a nearby parking lot as the teen made his way into the restaurant.
Evans was accused of fleeing with Trone after the shooting. She had known Trone since they were children, according to a recent court filing by the prosecution, and saw him as “a father figure” to her own son. After learning he was a suspect in the shooting, she reached out to Trone, prosecutors said in the filing. She allegedly rented a car and drove him from L.A. to Nevada “for safety,” the document said.
An FBI-led task force found Trone in Las Vegas within several weeks and arrested him in late September. He was extradited to California, where he was charged with murder, robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery. His son faced the same charges. Trone’s wife, Shauntel Trone, who is not related to his son, was charged also in late September with robbery and hiding Trone and his son at her home before their eventual arrests.
Jones remains incarcerated at Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles and is held on $1 million bail, according to county jail records. Evans was released last week on her own recognizance since her non-violent charge fell within the county’s new zero-bail policy. The court installed the policy in July after criticizing the cash bail system for disfavoring people who don’t have access to large amounts of money.
Jones, Evans and Trone are due in court for another hearing in December.
Philadelphia-born rapper PnB rock was known for his 2015 single “Fleek” and a hit song with Atlanta rapper YFN Lucci, “Everyday We Lit,” which cracked the Billboard Hot 100 in 2016. He also collaborated with other prominent artists, such as Ed Sheeran and Chance the Rapper.
Times staff writers James Queally, Richard Winton, Kenan Draughorne and the late Gregory Yee contributed to this report.