Yafeu Akiyele Fula - Tupac's Cuz

YAFEU FULA – 10/9/77 - 11/10/96

            `Ay Every Inch a King’


 

FAMILY
Yafeu Akiyele Fula was born October 9, 1977. Born proud, he stood strong and defiant in his brief life to forces less honorable. His parents, Yaasmyn Fula and Sekou Odinga were already active in the community and committed to social justice, truth and peace in America at a time of great world upheaval.

Named after African proverbs - Yafeu - “bold” and the middle name Akiyele - “valor enters the house” were chosen because we knew he was destined to greatness. During his brief lifetime he was indeed a very bold and courageous young man exhibiting strong leadership qualities and bravery at an early age.

Many factors contributed to Yafeus’ great destiny. In order to understand this young man and honor him properly it is imperative that his lineage is understood. For these were the loins from whence he sprung, these were the bearers of the torch that he inherited.

A direct descendant of a very well respected family in New Jersey on his mothers side – the Harrison-Martin clan. His great grandmother, Delia Harrison Martin was well known in New Jersey for her relentless pursuit and representation of human rights for all people. She began her legacy in 1920 working with the Newark Urban League under Bill Ashby. From there she allied herself to all political issues of the day that affected the lives and dignity of black people from the Woman’s’ Suffrage Movement, voter registration during the civil rights movement, community affairs, consumer rights, NAACP secretary, health advocate, and education for all. During her 100 years of living she received many awards and was responsible for drafting local government proclamations that directly benefited the black community.

The role Yafeus’ parents were playing in shaping the destiny of America vicariously shaped his life. His father, Sekou Odinga, a proud revolutionary activist was Section Leader of the Black Panther Party in the Bronx as well as other politically strong groups of the time such as Malcolm X’s Organization of African American Unity (OAAU). The goal was at that time and still remains self-determination, independence and freedom for the descendants of African slaves presently residing in the Americas. During the FBI’s attack of the Panthers under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover and President Nixon, COINTELPRO targeted and devised plots to destroy the Black Panther Party and their supporters. Many Panthers and activists were forced to flee for their lives to avoid being set up, many went underground. Some, like Sekou fled the country to Algeria and became part of the International Section of the Black Panther Party in collaboration with then exiled leader Eldridge Cleaver. At that time the East Coast and West Coast Panther Party were being manipulated by the powers that be to engage in destructive attacks upon each other. Today as in those days the media has exacerbated and contrived the East Coast – West Coast hip hop rivalry. The deaths and antagonisms are darkly familiar to those of us who survived the destruction and neutralization of the revolutionary movement by the FBI COINTELPRO program. Some, like Fred Hampton, Zayd Shakur, Bunchy Carter, Malcolm X, George and Jonathan Jackson, Lumumba Shakur, did not survive the conspiracy to eliminate the leadership of the Black Movement. Those who are not dead are either incarcerated or live to tell the story of their deceased sons and daughters – victims of this modern day holocaust. Sekou Odinga is incarcerated in the Marion Federal Correctional Institution, Marion, Illinois for the past 23 years. After being convicted in 1985 at the Brinks trial held in New York, Sekou claimed political prisoner status and was promptly convicted of being a member of the Black Liberation Army and freeing Assata Shakur from jail. He is doing 60 years to life. Recognized the world over as a progressive revolutionary brother, Sekou claims that the United States has no jurisdiction over him during his trials and that he was persecuted and convicted because of his political views and positions.

The Shakur and Fula families forged a strong bond during the Panther 21 trial in 1969 and ensuing community organizing that has sustained us throughout many dark days. At that time, Afeni, Tupacs’ mom along with Yafeus’ father, Sekou, section leader for the Bronx Black Panther Party had been charged as Black Panthers with all kinds of ridiculous crimes. Afeni, pregnant with Tupac represented herself in court. Sekou, hoped on a plane and fled to Algiers and was tried in absentia. In April 1971 all were found not guilty. It was the longest trial in the history of New York and a pivotal period in all our lives. The friendship and comradeship extended beyond our political commitments. Our children, Tupac, Sekyiwa, and her sister Glorias’ son, Katari (Kastro) have been in each others lives since they were babies.

When Tupac was incarcerated in 1995 on the sexual assault charge, I remember driving Fatal (Hussein) to Clinton Prison in Dannemora to visit him. Fatal, a local rapper in Montclair, was talented and needed a break. I knew he possessed the skills, street edge needed to give the Outlawz the boost they needed in Pacs absence.

In the visiting room, I introduced Fatal, Pac said – “let me hear what you can do” – Fatal did an impromptu freestyle. Pac, though impressed, asked for more. Fatal happily obliged. Pac soon came up with Fatal and Felony (Yaki). This was Pacs fatherly way of allowing Yaki back into a group and still making good on his kicking Yaki out of the Outlawz. Pac in true Makavelian style ran the show. He was the breadwinner for his family. The decree of “the Prince” was that nobody left the “kingdom” while he was incarcerated. The infraction? Yaki dared to leave the compound in Atlanta (Tupacs home) and travel to NJ for a friends funeral. Yaki always had a mind of his own and encouraged to do so by me. Despite Tupacs admonitions from jail not to leave, went anyway. Pac was more disappointed that his “son” had disobeyed him and vowed he would never be allowed back into the group. That all changed in September 1995, when Pac was released on bail and they together worked on and released All Eyez on Me. Their bond of love was an extraordinary one, throughout their entire lives. Tupac, besides myself, was the only constant Yaki had in his life. Tupac always teaching, Yaki always rebelling. I loved them both so dearly.


In October 1981, Yaasmyn, Yafeus’ mom was subpoened to a Grand Jury that was convened after the Brinks Bank Robbery in Nyack New York in which many activists from the communities, the Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army were arrested. Anyone involved in community work, health, education, were rounded up and subpoened to give testimony about their co-workers. The RICCO statute which was formerly used against organized crime was now being used for the first time against politically activists and community organizers. The Grand Jury was convened in secret using its powers to subpoena and harass all activists. Yaasmyn refused to testify against her co-workers and was sent to jail for 18 months. Yafeu was 4 years old at the time. During part of the 18 months he spent with Tupac and his family, but for the most part he was taken care of by his grandmother, Vivian Smith. His father was also arrested in October 1981. Yafeu never saw his father again, only speaking to him briefly over the years from jail.

Yafeu attended elementary school at Washington Elementary School in East Orange, New Jersey and then entered the school system in Montclair, New Jersey. Montclair, a well known progressive community known for its upscale neighborhoods and proximity to New York was a segregated town. The upper class resided in Upper Montclair and the middle and lower classes resided in just plain Montclair. The institutions of Montclair – both culturally and educationally were designed to maintain the status quo and quick to identify all who questioned/threatened the sanctimonious myths of prosperity. Yafeu was the consummate ‘Rebel with a Cause’. Even as a youngster he would always take up for the kid being mistreated in the playground. His strong spirit and sense of right and wrong got him into trouble with the local authorities and school who were in many cases derelict in their professional duties and out to identify “troublemakers”.

Yafeus’ forumulative years were spent growing up in New York and New Jersey, Tupac his beloved brother by his side. Tupac always the teacher, the mentor, the instructor, the organizer, the soldier with the game plan – Yafeu the loyal comrade. Tupac always had his lil brother and his cousins by his side, especially when his career started zooming. They were there with him during the early days of Digital Underground, being groomed at very early ages to write lyrics, always growing and planning for future projects.
 

CAREER
Yafeu appears on all of Pacs major albums from Me Against the World, to Makaveli, to All Eyez on Me. Much of the earlier stuff, like Runnin, which is one of my favorites because Yaki opened up the song, have been bootlegged and resold as has many of the songs he is on. The Outlawz performed under other names with Tupac – Dramacydal, Young Homies, Thorougheads. When Tupac was in jail Yaki and Fatal were supposed to release some work under the name Fatal and Felony but it never happened.
 

DEATH
Yafeu was murdered November 10, 1996, in Orange, New Jersey on the night of Tupacs memorial service. He was murdered by Mutah (Napoleon) Beale’s cousin Roddy Beale. Roddy had called and warned that he was coming, and asked the person not to tell Yafeu he was coming. There was allegedly some dispute around money. The last words from my son “Get that gun out of my face” before Roddy and his accomplice shot him in the eye, his brains literally blown out. How do you call and warn you are coming, ask not to have the person know you are coming, come and shoot the person and then claim it is an accident?

I blame the Beale family for my sons death and hold them accountable for his murder. Roddy was sentenced 4-7 years for manslaughter.

Now that Napoleon claims to have come into some kind of consciousness he had a responsibility according to the KORAN to make amends for a wrongful death. Especially since the person killed by his family member was someone he claims to have “loved”. With the accepting of Islam he now had a deeper responsibility and it was not just to flaunt his new found wealth and prosperity before the world. It is an ancient tradition – to make amends when there is a wrongful death. If, as his entire family has claimed - the murder of my son was an accident then he had a responsibility as a MUSLIM to follow the law of the KORAN. According to the Koran by not carrying out the requirements of the KORAN he aligned himself not as a believer, but as an infidel.
I question, in light of Mutahs’ lack of clarity to his responsibilities as a “new” Muslim, whether the entire trip to Mecca and conversion to Islam was sincere or just a publicity move to sell records!!

Mutah was the one held to a higher responsibility for it was Yafeu and my family that gave him his opportunity. Mutah would call our house every hour begging to hang out with Yafeu, begging to meet Tupac. Had it not been for my son, Mutah and his entire family would still be on the corners of Irvington, New Jersey or worse. The entire Beale family offered absolutely no acknowledgement of this fact. Mutah only knew Pac the last year of Tupacs’ life. Tupac felt sorry for this young man whose mother and father had been murdered when he was a boy and took him in.

Furthermore, the OUTLAWZ out of respect devoted certain proceeds from their sales to my sons memory. Mutah was the only member of the group to object to those payments and proceeded to leave the group leaving the other members of the group to pay his share of any proceeds. Does that sound like a loyal, sorrowful Muslim showing remorse for his friends death?

He neither contacted myself, nor did he contact Yafeus’ father, Sekou Odinga, a Muslim, to make amends. Instead he lets others speak for him who know nothing of the situation. That is not the actions of the innocent that is the actions of someone who is weak and dishonorable.

I am neither emotional nor am I distraught as Mutahs’ representatives have stated. I am clear about his duties that he failed to carry out. The record and history of my family in the community is strong and in tact. I have consulted with other Muslims and they have confirmed that this is “The Criteria” in the Koran – known as “Furquan”. One cannot hide behind Islam to cover-up for the bloodshed in your own domain. The murderer lived in your home. The murderer was introduced to Yafeu by Mutah. Islam is a religion that demands justice and codes of conduct from its followers. Mutah rode with Kings and continues to capitalize off their name while contradicting everything they stood for. His fate is sealed by his inability to understand their legacy and his own ignorance.
 

CLOSING
The responsibility to be courageous was not just outward, but an inward journey for Mutah and for all who spent a time with Kings no matter how brief. It was not a journey to promote individual careers or self-aggrendizement. To do so makes you as bad as the bloodsucking record companies and producers that exploit artists.

Rather, the special moments spent under the tutelage of Tupac Amaru Shakur, because that is what it was, to take his teachings and his dreams for a better world and implement them to the best of your ability. I remember all the hours of lectures Tupac speaking to the Outlawz about the revolutionary struggles in other parts of the world, teaching the responsibility that comes with success and how he wanted to use his artistry to give a voice to all the struggles for social justice, especially the African American.

Each moniker given to the member of the Outlawz was especially chosen to fit that member but also came with it an understanding of the fight against oppression of that particular world leader. Edi Amin, the murderous rogue President of Uganda was given to Malcolm not to honor Edi Amin but to acknowledge Tupacs understanding of our intricate connection to the politics of the world, and how he (Tupac) intended to interpret and give understanding to the youth. Fatal (Hussein) for the now deposed Iraqi leader. Katari Cox (Kastro) name chosen in recognition of the great Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Yafeus’ (Kadafi) in recognition of the Libyian leader Momar Kadafi and also Yafeus’ strong leadership attributes. Mutah (Napoleon) named after the great French general Napoleon Bonaparte for having a “Napoleon” or short persons complex - always ready to fight.

I miss my son. Not a day goes by that I don’t mourn the loss, the tragic waste of life at the hands of his “friends”. Not a day goes by I don’t hear of the murderous rampages committed in the communities we all worked so hard to uplift and change but were stopped dead in our tracks. The legacy of Tupac Amaru Shakur was one of commitment and solidarity with the revolutionary lives of progressive struggles and people, his own life and growth under constant evolution. If you spent a moment in his presence you knew that about him. Having done that my son, and all who benefited from the time spent with the giants were charged with the responsibility to carry on the torch of truth in your own life (inward) and not use that encounter for your own personal profit (outward). An honorable man doesn’t take the weak position. An honorable man takes the position that is just and honorable no matter how difficult it is. Those are the requisites for hanging out with honorable men.


We all have a responsibility to continue the work of our fathers, our sons and demand accountability and an end to Americas oppressive greed and war mongering. The weapons of mass destruction are in the communities of America. We pull the trigger on our own destinies - destroying families, friends, neighbors. The enemy is us. Every day another son, another daughter is senselessly murdered by hatred and ignorance. Success in the home of a revolutionary carries a very handsome price. You can either acknowledge that responsibility or spend the rest of your days explaining your failures.

I am grateful to all who honor my son. But if you truly honor his life and Tupacs’ than you must also honor yourselves and do everything inwardly to be courageous in your everyday lives, dare to be yourselves, not pander to the false images. Support the artists who are committed to justice, truth, peace and not just their own bank accounts. Support the artists whose music has a message, whose lives have meaning, whose legacies uplift and fill you with courage to go on. Don’t go for the okey doke! Dare to stand up and be brave, no matter the consequences, dare to be strong! My tears are shed daily for my son, but to know that his death has fostered in all the youth a commitment to life will give me the promise of a tomorrow, one that I will never share with him, but perhaps his 2 little girls (age 6) can know.

Dare to Struggle!

 

 

Trouble Man

Marvin Gaye (1914 – 1984)

 

Marvin Gay Sr. was born in 1914, the third of 13 children of poor farm parents in Jessamine County, Kentucky, south of Lexington. It was an abusive household, with father George Gay frequently beating his wife, Mamie.

"We were all frightened of him," Marvin Sr.'s brother, Howard Gay, told Travis Hunter, author of Trouble Man. "When you're 5 or 6 years old you don't know what to do when your mother is being beaten and there's hollerin' and cryin' going on."

 

After failing to scratch out a farm living, George Gay moved his brood to Lexington in 1919. A few years later, Mamie Gay began attending a storefront church in the city affiliated with a religious sect with a comically long name: The House of God, The Holy Church of The Living God, The Pillar And The Ground of The Truth, The House of Prayer for All People.

When Mamie Gay took up the faith, her son Marvin followed and became the family's enthusiastic believer. Many believe Marvin Jr.'s troubles had psychological roots in both family violence and this peculiar fringe faith.

The House of God, founded by R.A.R. Johnson, mixes elements of Orthodox Judaism with Pentecostal Christianity. Adherents maintain Saturday Sabbath and observe Old Testament prohibitions against pork and shellfish. They ignore Christmas but stock up on matzos for Passover.

The sect's leader, the "Chief Apostle", wears a miter hat adorned with a Star of David. Women attend services wearing all-white clothing. During services, congregants practice "tarrying", repeating the phrase "Thank you, Jesus" as a mantra until the Holy Spirit visits and sets them speaking in tongues.

In 1934, Marvin Sr. moved to Washington, D.C., as a House of God preacher. There he met Alberta Cooper. Born near Rocky Mount, N.C., she had been shipped north to avoid a hometown scandal when she turned up pregnant.

Marvin Gay married Alberta in July 1935, but he refused to raise her love child, and the infant was turned over to a sister.

Marvin and Alberta had four children: Jeanne, in 1937; Marvin Jr., on April 2, 1939; Frankie, in 1942, and Zeola, known as Sweetsie, in 1945.

Marvin Sr. led a storefront church congregation, although the faith's tiny following could not support its preacher. The Gay family lived in subsidized housing and survived on Alberta's income as a maid.

In 1950, Marvin Sr. was a candidate for Chief Apostle of the House of God. When the job went to another man, Gay abandoned the church.

Divided Soul

He worked sporadically part-time as a postal clerk and for Western Union in Washington, but he would never hold another full-time job. Jeanne Gay estimated her father worked just three years cumulatively after leaving the church.

His endless idle time allowed Marvin Gay Sr. to focus on his children.

Although he had given up the House of God, he pressed its many prohibitions on his family. He forbade athletics, dancing, movies, television and popular music. His daughters were not allowed to wear sleeveless dresses, nylons, lipstick, nail polish or open-toed shoes.

He forced his children to observe an extended Sabbath, from Friday afternoon until midday Sunday. He drilled them on Biblical passages and administered beatings for incorrect answers.

All four Gay children were bed-wetters, and this, too, prompted beatings.

"Living with father was something like living with a king, a very peculiar, changeable, cruel and all-powerful king," Marvin Gaye told biographer Ritz. "You were supposed to tip-toe around his moods. You were supposed to do anything to win his favor. I never did. Even though winning his love was the ultimate goal of my childhood, I defied him. I hated his attitude... If it wasn't for mother, who was always there to console me and praise my singing, I think I would have been one of those child suicides you read about in the papers."

Marvin Gaye & Alberta (his mother)

Marvin Jr. bore the brunt of the abuse. He could be provoked for the most picayune offenses—when he used his hairbrush or came home 15 minutes late from school.

Alberta Gay said, "My husband never wanted Marvin, and he never liked him. He used to say that he didn't think he was really his child. I told him that was nonsense. He knew Marvin was his. But for some reason he didn't love Marvin and, what worse, he didn't want me to love Marvin either. Marvin wasn't very old before he understood that."

Jeanne Gay said, "From the time he was 7 until he became a teenager, Marvin's life at home consisted of a series of brutal whippings."      

"It wasn't simply that my father beat me, though that was bad enough," Gaye said. "He'd say, 'Boy, you're going to get a whipping.' Then he'd tell me to take off my clothes and send me to the bedroom... It wouldn't have been so awful if he had hit me right away. But father liked mind games. He'd play with me. He'd make me wait an hour, or even more, all the while jangling his belt buckle loud enough so I could hear... When he finally struck me, I knew—children know these things—that something inside him was enjoying the whole thing."

Marvin Sr. was the antithesis of the macho stereotype of an abusive man. He was trim and effeminate and often dressed in women's blouses and wigs.

Marvin Gaye, young

As Marvin Jr. told Ritz, "My father likes to wear women's clothing... To tell you the truth, I have the same fascination with women's clothes. In my case, that has nothing to do with any attraction for men. Sexually, men don't interest me. But seeing myself as a woman is something that intrigues me. It's also something I fear. I indulge myself only at the most discreet and intimate moments. Afterward I must bear the guilt and shame for weeks."

The writer asked Alberta whether her husband was homosexual.

"I'm not certain," she said. "I do know that five of his siblings were homosexual. And it's true that he liked soft clothing... He liked to wear my panties, my

As a pre-teen, Marvin Jr. began to take refuge from his father at a piano that sat in the family's living room. (Marvin Sr. was a passable self-taught pianist.) The father encouraged Marvin to play, as long as he stuck with religious music.

Marvin Jr. proved to be a natural musician. He would never learn to read music, but he could play any tune by ear, including the blues and popular ballads when his father was away.

 

In his paranoia, Marvin Jr. had begun to stockpile guns when he returned home from the Sexual Healing Tour. He kept a cheap machine gun in his bedroom at one point until his mother insisted that he get rid of it.

For reasons not entirely clear, Marvin gave his father a handgun, an unregistered .38-caliber Smith & Wesson, at Christmas time in 1983.

 

On the night of March 31, 1984, Marvin Sr. was angered because he was unable to find a document concerning an insurance policy. He stormed around the house and yelled at Alberta, whom he blamed for losing the document.

He was still angry when he awoke the next morning, Sunday, April 1, the day before Marvin Jr.'s 45^th birthday.

At about 11 a.m., Marvin Sr. hollered up the stairs at his wife, who was in Marvin Jr.'s bedroom. The son went to the top of the stairs and hollered back that he should speak to Alberta's face if he had something to say.

The father hurried up the steps and entered his son's room. Marvin Jr. leaped up off the bed and pushed his 70-year-old father out into the hallway, knocking him down and kicking him.

Alberta interceded and the men separated. Marvin Jr. returned to his bed.

The father got up and went down the hall to his own bedroom. After a few moments, he returned to Marvin Jr.'s threshold. He raised a hand toward his son, and Alberta could see he was holding the .38 pistol Marvin Jr. had given him.

He pulled the trigger, and shot his son in the chest, tearing through his heart. As Marvin Jr. slumped off the bed to the floor, his father strode forward and fired again. The second shot was unnecessary.

Marvin Gay Sr. escorted by police

Marvin's brother, Frankie, ran to the sound of shots. His wife, Irene, called 911. Paramedics arrived to find Marvin Sr. sitting on the front porch. They demanded to see the gun before they would enter the house. Irene found it under Marvin Sr.'s pillow and threw it on the lawn.

Gaye was rushed to California Hospital. Resuscitation efforts were in vain. He was declared dead at 1:01 p.m.

At Cardozo High School, Marvin Jr. fell in with a clique of musically talented teens, and they formed a combo, the D.C. Tones. Marvin played piano and drums; no one knew he could sing.

The boys would take a bus to the Howard Theater and buy cheap seats to see touring rhythm and blues artists like James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke and Little Willie John.

Secretly, Marvin favored the style of white crooners like Dean Martin, Perry Como and Frank Sinatra. His pals learned he could sing one day when they caught him delivering a dead-on copy of Johnnie Ray's "Cry."

His growing interest in secular music led to new conflicts at home, and by age 18 the son had had enough. He dropped out of 11^th grade and joined the Air Force. But he soon learned that joining the military to escape a harsh authority figure was no solution, especially when he found himself peeling potatoes, not flying jet airplanes as he had hoped.

As he put it, "I was completely unprepared and found it impossible to take orders from pompous assholes with nothing better to do than humiliate me."

He was in the Air Force just long enough to lose his virginity to a hooker. He feigned mental illness and got an honorable discharge, with this proviso: "Marvin Gaye cannot adjust to regimentation and authority."

Funeral Procession

Everybody pointed fingers and offered theories after Gaye was dead.

 

Jeanne Gay said, "In the past Father had made it very clear that if Marvin were to strike him, he'd murder him. Father said so publicly on more than one occasion."

Gaye's bodyguard, Andre White, told author Turner that the case was in effect a suicide. He said, "He wanted to die, but he couldn't do it himself. He got his daddy to do it."

Dr. Ronald Markman, a psychiatrist who examined Marvin Gay Sr., had his own idea about the shooting.

"I believe that people kill basically because they're humiliated," he told Turner. "It's not a question of whether you're a pacifist, a minister or a rabbi. It's a question of whether you are capable of being humiliated and whether you are able to deal with that humiliation short of the need to destroy. That day Marvin had humiliated his dad by knocking him down. So you have a 45-year-old man hitting a 70-year-old man. He was knocked to the ground. He got up without a word but he went and got a gun and returned to kill him."

In a jailhouse interview a week after the slaying, Marvin Sr. explained the slaying to the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.

"I pulled the trigger," he said. "The first one didn't seem to bother him. He put his hand up to his face, like he'd been hit with a BB. And then I fired again. I was backing towards my room. I was going to go in there and lock the door. This time I heard him say, 'Oh,' and I saw him going down. I do know that I did fire the gun. I was just trying to keep him back off me. I want the world to know it wasn't presumptuous on my part."

Asked if he loved his son, Marvin Sr. chose his words carefully before saying, "Let's say that I didn't dislike him."

About 10,000 people attended the funeral, led by the Chief Apostle of the House of God, his father's old church. Stevie Wonder sang, and Smokey Robinson and Dick Gregory gave readings. Gaye was laid to rest wearing a costume from his final tour — a gold-and-white military-style uniform, with an ermine wrap at his shoulders.

An autopsy had found that Marvin Jr. had both cocaine and angel dust in his system when he died. And an examination of Marvin Sr. found what authorities called "massive bruises" on his body after he was arrested, apparently inflicted in the beating and stomping his son gave him just before the shooting.

Marvin Gay Sr. in court

Marvin Sr. was charged with murder, but on September 20, 1984, he was allowed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter, a plea bargain allowed based on his age (70), the physical assault and the drugs in his son's system.

He appeared before Judge Gordon Ringer on November 2 for sentencing.

"This is one of those terribly tragic cases in which a young life was snuffed out," Ringer said. "But under the circumstances it seems to be agreed by everybody, including the very able and experienced investigating officers in this case, that the young man who died tragically provoked this incident, and it was all his fault."

Marvin Sr. was given an opportunity to speak. He said, "If I could bring him back, I would. I was afraid of him. I thought I was going to get hurt. I didn't know what was going to happenI'm really sorry for everything that happened."

Ringer ordered a six-year suspended sentence and five years of probation. He banned Gay from drinking or owning a gun.

Gay Sr. moved into the Inglewood Retirement Home. Alberta divorced him, after 49 years. She died of bone cancer three years after the slaying. Marvin Sr. died of pneumonia in 1998. Their son Frankie died of a heart attack in 2001.

Gaye died without a will, so his estate was of no benefit to his three children.

He still owed Anna Gordy Gaye ,000 and the government $1.6 million in back taxes. His record royalties gradually paid down those debts while Motown and CBS fought in the courts over rights to Gaye's unreleased recordings.

Gaye wrote or recorded more than 200 songs, and 66 of them were Billboard hits. In 1987, he was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

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