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Pop Smoke Murder Convict Deijae Jester Gets 4 Years for Smuggling Fentanyl Into Juvenile Hall
Deijae Jester, convicted in Pop Smoke’s murder, received four years for smuggling fentanyl into a Los Angeles juvenile facility.
One of the men convicted in Pop Smoke’s killing has now been sentenced to four more years in custody, this time for smuggling fentanyl into a Los Angeles County juvenile detention facility.
On Thursday, Aug. 13, 21-year-old Deijae Jester was handed the sentence after he pleaded no contest to possessing 25 fentanyl-laced pills that authorities say his mother smuggled into Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles during a December 2025 visit, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Jester was 15 when he and three others broke into the Hollywood Hills home Pop Smoke was renting in February 2020. He was the one who ultimately shot the Brooklyn rapper three times in the back, a detail authorities say they learned from a recorded call while he was being held.
He was convicted of murder in 2023 and was already being held at a juvenile facility in Sylmar when the fentanyl case surfaced. Investigators said surveillance footage and recorded calls showed Jester and his mother discussing plans to get drugs inside.
During the visit, guards reportedly saw Jester’s mother, Nickia Randall, try to pass him a blue balloon containing 25 pills and a small amount of blue powder. Those pills were later identified as fentanyl-laced.
Prosecutors had pushed for the maximum five-year sentence. Jester’s attorney argued for leniency, pointing to his difficult upbringing and his efforts to earn a high school diploma while incarcerated. Judge P. Tamu Usher settled on four years.
Elsewhere in the case, only two of the four people involved in Pop Smoke’s murder were adults at the time. Corey Walker, who was 19 then, was sentenced in 2025 to 29 years in prison for his role. Keandre Rodgers, who was 18 at the time, was initially charged with murder, though his case is now being reassessed, according to NME.
Because California law doesn’t allow a juvenile to be held past the age of 25, Jester’s sentence was structured to keep him in custody until then. The new charge will transfer him to state prison.
The fourth person involved was 17 at the time of the shooting and was sentenced in 2023 to four years and two months in juvenile detention after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and home invasion burglary.
