Jamal Trulove's rap pseudonym "10MilliMilli" is now quite accurate, since he's been awarded a $13.1 million settlement in a case that dates back a decade.
Anyone who remembers the late-2000s VH1 reality-show curiosity Flavor of Love will recall the recurring character “New York,” a.k.a. Tiffany Pollard, who was given her own male suitor spin-off series called I Love New York. Weird preamble for a murder story, I realize, but I mention it because a San Francisco man who was a Season Two contestant on that program was accused of a Visitacion Valley murder in 2010. That man, Jamal Trulove, was found to have been framed, and the Examiner now reports that his attorneys have negotiated a $13.1 million settlement with the city. The Board of Supervisors approved the settlement at Tuesday’s meeting.
And trust me I’m not done with them by a long shot!! After what these cowards of the law did to me, I will lit my freedom ring through every platform I get to show what injustice really looks like. Me! #JamalTrulove #LifeAfterLife #Reform #SanFrancisco
— jamal trulove (@10millimilli) March 20, 2019
“And Sand still i rise” pic.twitter.com/ON3sR3uBgf
“Trust me I’m not done with them by a long shot!,” Trulove vowed on Twitter Tuesday night.
Ironically, Trulove’s brief (one episode) appearance on the reality series led to his wrongful conviction. An eyewitness to the 2007 murder of Seu Kuka at the Sunnydale Housing Project saw the show, and identified contestant Trulove as the killer. But a state appeals court would overturn that conviction in 2014 on grounds of prosecutorial misconduct, and a jury found him innocent in his 2015 retrial.
By then, though, Trulove had served six years behind bars. He sued the city in 2016, insisting that police had “manipulated an eyewitness,” and a jury agreed that investigators had “deliberately fabricated evidence.” This settlement avoids the city owing Trulove a possibly larger sum.
“We feel this proposed settlement is the best way to resolve this case,” City Attorney spokesperson John Cote told the Examiner. “Continuing to appeal could have increased that even further, and there were significant legal hurdles to overcome.”
Trulove, who has adopted the now-accurate rap nickname “10MilliMilli,” also appears in this summer’s upcoming indie flick The Last Black Man in San Francisco.
Related: James Rickleffs Found Guilty In 2012 Diamond Heights Murder Of Eriq Escalon [SFist]
