A New Orleans rapper and drug dealer who robbed other drug dealers pleaded guilty to murder in federal court on Thursday.
Larry "Lah" Rowel admitted to committing a retaliatory, drug-related homicide in 2019 and distributing cocaine and marijuana, among other federal charges.
A rapper on the "Spazz Gang" label, Rowel also was affiliated with a gang by the same name that operated in New Orleans East and the 9th Ward.
He was one of three masked gunmen to fire 48 rounds at a pickup truck driving in the 4800 block of Wilson Avenue on Dec. 2, 2019. Fifteen of them hit the truck and killed its occupant, Terrance Hampton, 26. Hampton's girlfriend was also in the truck and survived.
This picture of cash is attached to a factual basis detailing Larry Rowel's guilty pleas. It depicts a photo Rowel posted to Instagram.
Prosecutors said Rowel and other gang members were hunting Hampton because he'd murdered one of their drug associates, Armond Hall, earlier the same day. Ballistics testing later confirmed Hampton's involvement in that killing, police say.
Hampton was also a drug dealer, according to court documents, and police found crack in his bullet-riddled vehicle after it crashed onto the neutral ground.
A few weeks later, on Christmas Eve, Rowel broke into the apartment of another drug dealer's girlfriend on Abundance Street, aiming to find $43,000 belonging to the dealer, but a ransacking turned up nothing, court records show.
"Y'all just missed 40 bands," one Spazz member chided the others in a text message.
Law enforcement used Rowel's cell phone records to link him to the crime. His phone was new, because he'd left his old cell phone at the murder scene earlier that month.
Authorities also found two .223 rifles used in the murder and located the silver Mitsubishi at Rowel's apartment. Rowel was arrested for Hall's killing on April 16, 2020.
A federal grand jury in January 2022 handed up a 13-count indictment, and on Thursday, Rowel pleaded guilty to a host of federal charges, U.S. Attorney Duane Evans' office announced.
They include conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana, conspiracy to possess firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and crime of violence, and causing death through the use of a firearm and conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robberies.
Rowel faces life imprisonment for the murder conviction. U.S. District Judge Jane Triche-Milazzo set his sentencing for April 24.
