Rapper’s Bodyguard Sentenced in Stalking Case

VAN NUYS — The bodyguard for top-selling rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg was sentenced by a judge to 16 months in prison Wednesday after he pleaded no contest to stalking his former girlfriend. McKinley Malik Lee, 27, could have avoided prison had he abided by a plea agreement reached earlier under which he promised to stop contacting the victim, a 25-year-old San Fernando Valley woman.

But Lee’s defense attorney later withdrew the plea after prosecutors alleged he had again called and threatened the victim.

Under the sentence handed down by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Harwin, Lee will probably serve only several months in state prison, authorities said. He could have been sentenced to up to three years.

“We are pleased with the resolution of the case and that the victim will not have to go through the stress of testifying at trial,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Jennifer Turkat. “If Mr. Lee had not contacted the victim in violation of the court’s order, he might not have been sentenced to state prison.” Lee met the woman last year after a trial in which he and Death Row Records rap artist Snoop Doggy Dogg, whose given name is Calvin Broadus, were acquitted of murder. The bodyguard admitted he shot Philip Woldemarian, 20, in a park, but claimed he fired at the reputed gang member in self-defense. During the trial, Lee met and began dating the woman he was later accused of stalking.

Late last summer, the woman said she ended the relationship when Lee started to get “too possessive” and began following her. At a preliminary hearing in May, the woman testified that Lee broke through a locked sliding-glass door on the second story of her townhouse, chased a male friend down the stairs and beat her head against the floor.