Promoter Who Ordered 50 Cent’s Friend Killed Loses Appeal

The conviction of a former hip-hop and rap promoter who ordered the killing of a friend of 50 Cent was upheld Friday.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that James Rosemond was properly convicted of murder-for-hire charges.

Rosemond was accused of hiring a crew to kill an associate of the rap group G-Unit as payback for an assault on Rosemond’s son. The associate, Lodi Mack, was killed in the Bronx in 2009.

His lawyer had argued that witnesses against him were only trying to reduce their own sentences.

The first ended in a mistrial with a hung jury. Rosemond was convicted at his second trial and sentenced to life in prison, but the judge was later found to have erred on one point, and a third trial was ordered. That also resulted in a conviction and life sentence, which Rosemond appealed.

He already was serving two life sentences for separate drug and gun convictions.