Former Pop Smoke Killer Sentenced to Four Years for Fentanyl Smuggling in Juvenile Hall

Deijae Jester, the teenager who shot rapper Bashar "Pop Smoke" Jackson in 2020, received a four-year state prison sentence on Thursday for trafficking fentanyl inside Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall. He entered a no-contest plea to possession of 25 fentanyl-laced pills that his mother, Nickia Randall, attempted to hand to him during a December 2025 visitation. The court noted his earlier homicide conviction, a history of narcotic incidents—including an overdose revived with Narcan—and his role in a scheme to sell the drug to other detained youths.

While serving his murder sentence at Sylmar, Jester earned a high school diploma and became a father, but the judge deemed the new offense severe enough for adult incarceration. Prosecutor Nathalie Garcia urged the maximum five-year term, yet Judge P. Tamu Usher settled on four years, emphasizing the danger to other minors.