Lil Phat Death: The Murder-for-Hire Plot, Trial, and Convictions

Rapper Lil Phat, whose real name was Melvin Vernell III, was shot and killed on June 7, 2012, in the parking lot of Northside Hospital in Sandy Springs, Georgia, where he had come to visit his fiancée before the birth of their daughter. He was 19. His death was the result of a murder-for-hire plot over 10 pounds of stolen marijuana, and three men were convicted in Fulton County in 2014.

How He Was Killed

Vernell drove to Northside Hospital on the evening of June 7, 2012, to see his fiancée, Alnese Frazier, who was on bed rest. While he sat in his car in the parking lot, a gunman shot him four times in the back with a Glock .357 SIG pistol. He was taken into the hospital’s emergency room and pronounced dead.¹

Why He Was Killed

Prosecutors said the killing was payback for a theft. Vernell had taken 10 pounds of marijuana from Gary Bradford, a rapper who performed as Eldorado Red, and Decensae Xavier White, a San Francisco State University basketball player known as “Griz.” The two allegedly paid $10,000 to Deandre Washington and Maurice DeWayne Conner, members of the Bang Get Money gang, to carry out the hit.²

A fifth man made the hit possible. Mani Chulpayev ran a luxury car leasing company called Global Elite, and Vernell’s car that night was one of his leases. Prosecutors said Chulpayev passed the vehicle’s GPS tracking data to the conspirators, allowing the shooters to find Vernell at the hospital. Investigators also learned Vernell had been scheduled to testify in a fraud case that could have hurt Chulpayev, giving him his own reason to want Vernell dead.¹

How Investigators Identified the Killers

An FBI confidential informant first pointed to Bradford and White, and phone records placed the two near the hospital in the hours before the shooting. About two weeks after the murder, an anonymous 911 caller named Bradford and Conner.¹

Investigators then found that an Alabama state trooper had pulled Conner over for speeding on June 6, 2012, the day before the murder, with Washington in the passenger seat. Conner told the trooper they were driving to Atlanta for a funeral. Phone records placed both men at Northside Hospital at the time Vernell was shot. A later tipster described how Bradford had recruited the two shooters and how the GPS tracker in Vernell’s leased car had been used to follow him.¹ A Fulton County grand jury indicted all five men on charges including murder, felony murder, criminal street gang activity, and weapons counts.³

Who Was Convicted

Four defendants went to trial in Fulton County in August 2014, prosecuted by District Attorney Paul Howard. White was tried separately after agreeing to cooperate; he received an eight-year sentence plus probation in exchange for testimony that identified Washington and Conner as the shooters acting on Bradford’s orders.¹

On August 29, 2014, the jury returned its verdicts.⁴

Deandre Washington was convicted of murder, felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy, participation in criminal street gang activity, and possession of a firearm during a felony. He was sentenced to life without parole plus 20 years.
Maurice Conner was convicted of conspiracy, participation in criminal street gang activity, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and sentenced to 30 years.
Gary Bradford was convicted of conspiracy and participation in criminal street gang activity but acquitted of the murder charge itself, and sentenced to 25 years.⁵

Why the Fifth Suspect Walked on Murder

Mani Chulpayev was arrested roughly two months after the shooting, but his case took a very different path. He had served as an FBI informant for nearly a decade, a status that had previously helped him avoid prison or deportation for crimes including extortion and kidnapping.⁶ His handler, Special Agent Dante Jackson, came under investigation by the Department of Justice Inspector General and the FBI’s Inspection Division for allegedly accepting cash, jewelry, watches, basketball tickets, hotel rooms, and use of luxury cars from Chulpayev while the murder investigation was open.³

In April 2015, Fulton County prosecutors dropped the murder charges. The Georgia Supreme Court had ruled that two statements Chulpayev made to police were involuntary, citing promises made by his FBI handler, and that ruling gutted the state’s case. District Attorney Paul Howard told reporters, “This defendant, Mani Chulpayev, got away with murder.”⁷ Chulpayev was later indicted by a federal grand jury in November 2018 over a separate luxury-car fraud scheme, fled to Ukraine, was extradited, and in February 2024 was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison with nearly $4.7 million in restitution. None of that was for Vernell’s killing.⁸

Who Lil Phat Was

Melvin Vernell III was born on July 25, 1992, and grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was signed to Trill Entertainment, the Baton Rouge label behind Lil Boosie and Webbie.⁹ At 14, he appeared alongside Lil Boosie on Webbie’s 2008 single “Independent” from Savage Life 2, the song that put him in front of a national audience.¹⁰ His own releases included Life of a Yungsta (2008) and Trill 4 Life (2010, with Webbie), and his vocals continued to appear on later Webbie projects after his death.¹¹ His daughter was born shortly after he was killed.

1
Oxygen. Melvin Lil Phat Vernell Murder for Hire Victim in Atlanta
2
Augusta Chronicle. 5 People Conspired to Kill Atlanta Rapper, Say Prosecutors
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ABC News. FBI Agent Gifts Cash Mobster Informant Alleges
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WSB-TV. Man Gets Life Without Parole for Murder of Rapper Lil Phat
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Billboard. Lil Phat Murder Conviction
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ABC News. Murder Mobster FBI Investigation
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Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Murder Charges Dropped Against Former Russian Mobster
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U.S. Department of Justice. Russian Mobster Extradited From Ukraine and Sentenced in $9 Million Fraud Scheme
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XXL Magazine. Today in Hip-Hop: R.I.P. Lil Phat
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Hollywood Reporter. Slaying of Lil Phat in Hip-Hop
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AllMusic. Lil Phat