The individual who confessed to killing rapper Pop Smoke has received an additional four-year prison sentence for a fentanyl-smuggling operation within a Los Angeles juvenile detention facility. Deijae Devon Jester, who was 15 when he fatally shot the 20-year-old rapper during a 2020 home invasion, was sentenced on August 13 to four years in county jail.
Jester pleaded no contest on June 23 to three felony counts: possession for sale of a controlled substance, bringing contraband into a jail, and bringing or sending contraband into a juvenile hall or camp. The charges stem from a December 14, 2025, incident at Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall. Authorities recovered one of two latex balls allegedly passed to Jester by his mother, Nickia Tyonia Randall, containing 25 fentanyl pills. Randall faces the same charges, and her case remains pending.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman stated that Jester had been offered an opportunity for rehabilitation following Pop Smoke's killing. "Deijae Jester committed a devastating crime when he took the life of Pop Smoke," Hochman said. "Because he was a juvenile, the law afforded him an opportunity for redemption. Instead of embracing that opportunity, he chose to traffic one of the deadliest drugs imaginable from inside a juvenile detention facility."
Jester's latest sentence comes more than six years after Pop Smoke, born Bashar Barakah Jackson, was killed during a home invasion at a rented Airbnb in the Hollywood Hills on February 19, 2020. The rapper had inadvertently posted the address of the mansion on social media, leading a group of intruders to the location. Five individuals entered through a second-story balcony around 4:30 a.m. Following a brief physical altercation, Pop Smoke was pistol-whipped and shot three times in the back. Jester later confessed in juvenile court to firing the fatal shots.
As a juvenile, Jester was initially ordered to remain in a juvenile facility until age 25. An adult involved in the incident, identified as Walker, was 19 at the time of the killing. He pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and home-invasion robbery and received a 29-year sentence in state prison on February 21, 2025. A 17-year-old accomplice pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and home invasion in April 2023 and was sentenced to four years and two months in a secure youth facility. Another juvenile defendant was convicted under separate plea deals.
Pop Smoke's career gained significant recognition posthumously, including multiple awards and two Grammy Award nominations.