Teen in Pop Smoke Murder Gets Four Years for Fentanyl Smuggling

One of the men convicted in Pop Smoke’s murder has been sentenced to four years in prison for smuggling fentanyl into a Los Angeles County juvenile detention facility.

On Thursday (Aug. 13), 21-year-old Deijae Jester was sentenced after he pleaded no contest to possessing 25 fentanyl-laced pills that his mother allegedly 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. It was Jester himself who ultimately shot the Brooklyn rapper three times in the back, which authorities learned from a recorded call while he was being held.

He was convicted of the murder in 2023 and was being held at a juvenile facility in Sylmar when the fentanyl incident occurred. Investigators said surveillance footage and recorded calls showed Jester and his mother discussing plans to smuggle drugs inside.

During the visit, guards reportedly saw Jester’s mother, Nickia Randall, attempt to pass him a blue balloon containing 25 pills and a small amount of blue powder. The pills were later identified as fentanyl-laced.

Prosecutors sought the maximum five-year sentence, while Jester’s attorney pointed to his difficult upbringing and efforts to earn his high school diploma while incarcerated. Judge P. Tamu Usher ultimately handed down four years.

Out of the four people involved in Pop’s murder, only two were adults. Corey Walker, who was 19 at the time, was sentenced for his role in 2025, receiving 29 years behind bars. Keandre Rodgers, who was 18 at the time, was initially charged with murder, though his case is now being reassessed, according to NME.

Under California law, a juvenile cannot be held past 25-years-old, so Jester received a sentence that would keep him there until then. The new charge will transfer him to a state prison.

The fourth person was 17 at the time of the shooting, and was sentenced to four years and two months in juvenile detention after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and home invasion burglary in 2023.