CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / LOS ANGELES
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The attorney for a hip-hop artist accused of beating a jazz pianist to death in what has been called a real-life version of the film “Crash” asked Wednesday that charges be reduced from murder to manslaughter.
In papers filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the lawyer suggested that Swedish artist David Jassy, 35, acted in self-defense when he punched and kicked John Osnes, 55, during a November confrontation in a Hollywood crosswalk.
“A motorist is not required to sit passively in his vehicle while a pedestrian strikes the vehicle and yells at him, and wait and see if the stranger’s anger escalates,” lawyer Alec Rose wrote.
Witnesses said Osnes, a pedestrian, struck the hood of Jassy’s SUV after it came close to hitting him. The witnesses said Jassy got out, punched Osnes, kicked him in the head and drove over him.
-- Harriet Ryan
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