Suge Knight Trial Latest News Update: Defense Claims His Blind Spot Led to Fatal Hit-And-Run Killing

The lawyer for record producer Marion "Suge" Knight, who is accused of running down two men with his pick-up truck at a Los Angeles area burger stand, killing one of them, has come out in defense of the rap mogul, saying Knight is blind in his left eye and might not have seen clearly the two men during the incident.

Attorney Matthew Fletcher told celebrity news website TMZ that Knight suffers from glaucoma and did not have a clear view of his left side, which forced him to drive forward through the parking lot of Tam's Burgers in the Los Angeles suburb of Compton following a fist fight with one of the men in January.

Fletcher told TMZ that his client might not have clearly seen Terry Carter, 55, who was struck and killed by Knight's Ford F-150. Cle "Bone" Sloan, 51, who was also hit by Knight's vehicle, survived his injuries.

The attorney claimed that Carter had screamed something about shooting Knight, 49, and that the music executive could not see well enough to tell if Carter was brandishing a gun.

The lawyer spoke a day after TMZ posted a graphic video, apparently captured by a Tam's security camera, of Knight running over Carter and Sloan.

The tape appears to support a contention by prosecutors that Knight, who had traded blows with Sloan through the driver's side window of his truck, deliberately ran the men down as he sped from the scene.

But Fletcher contended that the videotape actually shows that his client was innocent since it showed him fleeing an ambush at the burger shop.

The videotape appears to show that Knight could have driven left down a side street rather than through the parking lot where Sloan and Carter were standing. But Fletcher told the New York Daily News in an interview published on Wednesday that his client's vision problems made that impossible.

"How can he go left if he can't see?" Fletcher told the paper. "This was a literal presentation of being blindsided. He was attacked on his blind side. To me it seems obvious. He's being punched in the face, he can't see."

Fletcher said the video clearly showed that his client was just defending himself after being attacked by Sloan. The lawyer also added that if Knight had "put his vehicle in park and got out, he would have been dead."

TMZ recently released the video of the accident as per the wishes of Carter's family. The video showed Sloan approaching Knight. But whether or not Sloan physically assaulted Knight was not visible. Moments later, Knight was shown reversing his truck and hitting Sloan. He then ran over Carter.

Gary A. Dordick an attorney acting on behalf of Carter's family, noted that the video was clear evidence that "Carter's tragic death was caused by unnecessary acts of violence initiated by Sloan, resulting in Knight retaliating by using his motor vehicle as a deadly weapon."

After the release of the video, there was also speculation that Sloan was armed and that he handed a gun to someone else after the accident. But Sloan later released a statement saying the object was not a gun but a walkie-talkie.

Knight has pleaded innocent to murder, attempted murder and hit-and-run charges in the case. No trial date has been set.

The co-founder of influential Death Row Records has previous convictions for assault with a deadly weapon and could face 25 years to life in prison under California's so-called three-strikes law if he is convicted at trial.