Three arrested in rap music raids

Warrants not related to killings of Shakur, Smalls

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VIDEO Los Angeles Sheriff's investigators arrest three men at the offices of the former Death Row Records. CNN's Charles Feldman reports. PLAY VIDEO

BEVERLY HILLS, California (CNN) -- Three people, including a former deputy sheriff, face charges of homicide and conspiracy to commit murder after investigators raided rap music mogul Marion "Suge" Knight's corporate office and several other locations Thursday.

The arrests stemmed from a June killing of Eric Daniels of Compton, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department said at a Thursday news conference. His death was in retaliation for another killing earlier in the year, investigators said.

The warrants were not related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur or the 1997 slaying of Biggie Smalls, they said.

The three men arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit murder are Kordell Depree Knox, 37; Michael Leroy Payne, 25; and Theodore Peter Kelly, 29. Kelly was arrested at Knight's corporate office, Tha Row Records, formerly called Death Row Records.

The three were being held without bail Thursday afternoon. Five warrants remain to be served, investigators said, and authorities also arrested two other men on marijuana possession charges.

Knox was fired from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on November 1 "as the result of being a suspect in an unrelated assault-with-a-deadly-weapon incident," said Sgt. Joe Efflandt.

Knight founded the label that represented Shakur, among others. An attorney for Knight said the rap magnate was "concerned ... and mystified."

"He doesn't understand what this is all about," said Arthur Barens.

The sheriff's department carried out 16 separate searches in numerous Los Angeles suburbs and in Las Vegas, Nevada, Harris said.

Knight is believed to be the former owner of several locations searched Thursday, including one in Las Vegas, according to the sheriff's department.

Knight was released from a California prison in August 2001 after serving several years for a parole violation.

He has been the target of numerous state and federal investigations into allegations of drug trafficking and money laundering, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office. No charges were filed in those cases, sources said.

In a recent incident related to the rap industry, Jam Master Jay, 37, DJ of Run-DMC, was killed October 30 at a New York City recording studio. (Full story)

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