A 23-year-old rapper was convicted Tuesday, Oct. 13, of fatally shooting a rival in his Anaheim home, a killing he initially falsely claimed was the result of a drive-by shooting.<\/p>\n
An Orange County Superior Court jury deliberated for more than a day before finding Zachary Pickrell guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the 2021 shooting death<\/a> of 17-year-old Danilo Ashton Arauz Jr.<\/a> in a studio at his home.<\/p>\n Pickrell\u2019s attorney, Adam Vining of the Orange County Public Defender\u2019s Office, told jurors that the shooting was an accident and that Pickrell didn\u2019t know the gun was loaded. Jurors opted not to convict Pickrell of a more serious charge of second-degree murder.<\/p>\n Pickrell and Arauz grew up in the same neighborhood, but \u201cclaimed\u201d different blocks, leading to a dispute between the two of them, according to testimony. Pickrell \u201cclaimed\u201d the 1700 block of Holbrook Lane, where he lived, while Arauz released an album titled \u201cTrappin\u2019 Out of the 1800,\u201d referencing a different block.<\/p>\n The two seemed to have set their differences aside when Pickrell invited Arauz and another friend to his home on Sept. 5, 2021. Pickrell, Arauz and the other friend were hanging out in an upstairs home studio, according to testimony, while Pickrell\u2019s mother was downstairs.<\/p>\n The three were talking about a song Arauz had released that day called \u201cSeeing Red,\u201d according to testimony. Snippets of video, shown during the trial, captured them handling a gun, which the attorneys told jurors they had passed between themselves.<\/p>\n Pickrell pointed the gun at Arauz\u2019s head and pulled the trigger, an act that the prosecution argued was inherently dangerous to human life. He initially lied to police, according to testimony, by claiming Arauz had been struck by gunfire in a drive-by shooting near the home.<\/p>\n Arauz was pronounced dead four days later in a hospital from injuries sustained in the shooting.<\/p>\n Senior Deputy District Attorney Juliet Oliver told jurors that the killing was \u201ca direct illustration of how toxic and destructive and murderous ego can be,\u201d adding that Pickrell prior to the shooting had \u201cconfronted\u201d Arauz \u201cover something so petty and silly as the words spoken in a song, a geographical location referenced.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the prosecution, Pickrell before pulling the trigger asked if Arauz was afraid to die, leading Arauz to respond he was not. Pickrell was playing \u201cRussian Roulette\u201d with Arauz\u2019s life, Oliver argued, and it didn\u2019t matter if he explicitly knew the gun was loaded or not.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was playing with fire and he killed someone because of it,\u201d Oliver said. \u201cHe made no effort to find out (if the gun was loaded). If he would have, we wouldn\u2019t be here.\u201d<\/p>\n Vining, Pickrell\u2019s attorney, acknowledged that his client was responsible for Arauz\u2019s death, which he described as \u201ctragic.\u201d But the defense attorney denied that Pickrell had intentionally killed Arauz.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t imagine what it feels like to lose your own child, but that doesn\u2019t mean it happened on purpose,\u201d Vining told jurors.<\/p>\n Vining noted that, according to the other friend in the room, Pickrell said \u201cOh s\u2014!\u201d immediately after the gun fired and appeared scared. The defense attorney contended that there hadn\u2019t been a fight, an argument or tension in the room prior to the shooting.<\/p>\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t go to Ashton\u2019s house, he didn\u2019t do a drive-by,\u201d Vining told jurors. \u201cHe knows where Ashton lives. Who does a murder in his own home?\u201d<\/p>\n Pickrell is scheduled to return to court for sentencing in several weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 23-year-old rapper was convicted Tuesday, Oct. 13, of fatally shooting a rival in his Anaheim home, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,1312,723,138,100,136],"class_list":["post-496355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-news","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}