In a plea deal, county prosecutors have agreed to drop felony gun charges against Bay Area rapper A-Wax in exchange for a no-contest plea to a misdemeanor accessory charge that stemmed from a 2020 raid on his Pittsburg recording studio.
A-Wax, whose real name is Aaron Doppie, said in an interview with the Bay Area News Group that the charge he pleaded was “basically admitting I didn’t have adequate security at my studio” and that an unidentified person brought a gun there. Doppie has for years denied that either of the guns found during the police raid belonged to him. His attorney told this news organization that a DNA test from one of the weapons excluded Doppie as a contributor, while no DNA was found on the other one.
“Honestly I didn’t want to take any charge for it. I didn’t do anything wrong so I just wanted to let the evidence see itself through,” Doppie said in a May interview at his recording studio. “But at the end of the day … it’s easier for me to focus on my career versus having to jump through those hoops all day. it would have been costly financially.”
Doppie’s attorney, Kellin Cooper, said his client “he would probably go to trial and get a not guilty verdict in about 10 minutes” but that he “appreciated in our COVID era this probably wouldn’t be the best use of judicial resources.”
The Contra Costa District Attorney’s office declined to comment.
Doppie’s rap career has spanned decades and included more than 20 album releases. His songs have received millions of streams online, and his lyrics have even referenced the gun case while the charges were still pending. In one song, he calls the charges “bogus,” shouts out Cooper, and thanks his manager for sending him magazines during his monthlong jail stint in early 2020, before he was released on house arrest.
“I want to shed light on that, I’m sure a lot of people where I’m from have been in similar situations where they’re completely innocent and accused of a bunch of BS,” Doppie said. “Just because the police are accusing people of stuff doesn’t meet they’re guilty, but some people just believe everything the cops say.”
In March 2020, Pittsburg police arrested Doppie and two others in a raid of his recording studio. At a subsequent court hearing, prosecutors said Doppie had been arrested on a murder warrant and sought to have him held without bail. No murder charges were ever filed, prosecutors never publicly detailed the alleged homicide investigation, and in a subsequent hearing a judge freed Doppie with orders to wear a GPS ankle monitor.
Doppie said in 2020 that he believed the guns found by police likely belonged to some of the “at-risk youth” he would invite to his studio. He said he was asleep in another room when the raid occurred and didn’t learn a weapon was found until after his arrest.
As soon as the plea deal was finalized, Doppie scheduled his first tour in two years. He said the police raid caused him to lose his recording studio, and he’s working to re-situate with plans to release an album this year.
“I’m just trying to rebuild everything, to get everything flowing smoothly again back in the business mode,” Doppie said. “But I did take a step back on trying to help other people for a while. I’m just gonna focus on myself and my loved ones and the people who are involved with me business-wise.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com