Acquittal: Not guilty verdict for man accused of shooting rapper to death

A man who shot and killed an up-and-coming rapper at the Beverly Center last year was acquitted of murder Friday in a case that focused in part on the victim's violence-laced gangsta rap lyrics.

Aubrey Berry, 24, was hugged by his defense attorney as the last of the not guilty verdicts was read in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom. Friends and family of rapper Dolla, whose real name was Roderick Anthony Burton II, wailed and sobbed in the audience.

"Obviously, what happened on May 18, 2009, was a horrible tragedy for everyone," Superior Court Judge Michael E. Pastor told the lawyers in court. "The jurors have spoken."

-- Jack Leonard

Read more of Leonard's report from the courtroom: Man acquitted in rapper's shooting death

Photo: Attorney Howard R. Price, who called prosecutors' pursuit of the case as a murder "absurd," with his client, Aubrey Berry, in the courtroom. Credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times