Three men were sentenced in Fulton County Friday in the murder case of a rapper gunned down in an Atlanta parking lot last year.

Gary Bradford (Eldorado Red) was sentenced to 25 years for participating in criminal street gang activity and conspiracy to commit a crime. Read more here.

Update – On Wednesday, both prosecution and defense rested their case in the murder trial of Gary Bradford aka Eldorado Red, Deandre Washington aka Main Easy, and Maurice Conner aka Da Boi who are accused of the execution-style murder of Melvin Vernell, III who was professionally known as Lil Phat. Special Gang Prosecutor Gabe Banks began his closing argument by telling the jury who Lil Phat was as a person. “He was 19 years old, a father of three girls, two with Alnese Frazier and one from a previous relationship. He was an aspiring rapper and on June 7th of 2012, his aspiring dream to make it big in the hip hop industry came to a halt, it ended, he experienced a premature death at the hands of these three defendants who actually tracked him down and hunted him down at the Northside Hospital around 6:40pm.”

The prosecution believes this was all to take revenge on Lil Phat for stealing marijuana from Decensae White and alleged Bloods gang leader Gary “Eldorado Red” Bradford. White also implicated Maurice Dewayne Conner and Deandre Washington in the murder. According to authorities, Conner and Washington were the gunmen hired to shoot the aspiring rapper.

Dennis Byron – After almost two years of pre-trial motions, the trial of some of the defendants charged with the execution-style murder of rising rap star Lil Phat began on Thursday in Atlanta, Georgia’s Fulton County Superior court. Gary Bradford, Maurice Conner and Deandre Washington are three of the five individuals being tried today for the killing of Melvin Vernell, III.

24 year-old Alnese Frazier gave a tearful testimony today about the death of Melvin Vernell, III professionally known as Lil Phat,