PLYMOUTH - The nephew who allegedly shot his uncle while both were in the funeral cortege for the family matriarch opened fire while the procession was on Route 3 in Duxbury to protect himself, the nephew’s attorney said today.
Gai Scott appeared in Plymouth District Court today to face a charge of armed assault with intent to murder. A not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf by attorney Jon Ciraulo. Scott, 36, of Randolph is accused of shooting his uncle, Raymond E. Scott, 48, a rapper and reality star known by the stage name of Benzino.
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“When the dust settles, this case will be shown to be self-defense,’’ Ciraulo said.
Gai Scott was ordered held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing requested by Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz’s office.
The bizarre incident took place on Route 3 South on Saturday.
Raymond Scott told the Globe Sunday from his bed at the South Shore Hospital in Weymouth that he did not intend to attend his mother’s funeral in order to avoid trouble stemming from a festering family feud.
AP/The Patriot Ledger, Greg Derr/Pool
Gai Scott appeared in Plymouth District Court today to face a charge of armed assault with intent to murder.
“I looked over, there was a car, and all I saw was a gun shooting at me,” Scott said in a telephone interview. He would not identify who shot him by name, but said the assailant fired seven or eight shots at him.
Scott was discharged from the hospital shortly after 11 a.m. today and could not immediately be reached to respond to the assertions by his nephew’s defense attorney that he had acted in defense. But Scott’s long-time attorney, Martin K. Leppo, responded on the elder Scott’s behalf.
“Six shots into Ray Scott’s car, and he chased him on the highway,’’ said Leppo, a veteran criminal and civil attorney. “That doesn’t sound like self-defense to me.’’
Leppo also insisted that Scott had decided against attending the funeral for his mother, Mary Scott, and was enroute to pickup a friend in Plymouth when he chanced upon the funeral entourage. He also said that tension between branches of the Scott family stemmed from Raymond Scott’s belief that his mother’s property and finances were misused by his sister’s family.
Scott grew up in Dorchester and was part of a rap group that infuriated Boston police officers in the early 1990s for an anti-police rap. He was a founder of the rap magazine, The Source. Scott is a cast member of the VH1 reality show ‘‘Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” and is chief executive of Hip-Hop Weekly..
The Plymouth district attorney’s office has said Scott was shot twice by his nephew, Gai Scott, as the two drove through Duxbury.
Maureen Scott, who is Raymond Scott’s sister and Gai Scott’s mother, was struggling after losing her mother and having her son arrested, according to her attorney, Christopher B. Coughlin. Coughlin, who is also representing Gai Scott, dismissed comments from the elder Scott as self-promotion.
“My client and his family, including Maureen [Scott] vehemently deny any accusations that Benzino is making,’’ Coughlin said today. “I would suggest that he [the uncle] has an agenda in utilizing and self-promoting at this time.’’
Coughlin said Gai Scott is a licensed gun owner and that he does not believe Scott will be ordered held without bail after the dangerousness hearing Wednesday in the Plymouth courthouse. “We don’t think that our client is a threat to anyone.’’
After being shot in the upper arm and back, Raymond Scott said, he stopped the car, got out, and ran away. A moment later, another relative driving in the procession stopped to pick him up, then brought him to the Duxbury police station.
Raymond Scott is perhaps best known as the former co-owner of The Source, once a widely read and influential hip-hop magazine. His career has also been marred by a series of lawsuits and brushes with the law.
Scott left The Source in 2006 amid a swirl of controversy that included a multimillion-dollar lawsuit by former editor-in-chief Kimberly Osorio alleging harassment and discrimination, according to news reports at the time.
A song Scott wrote in the early 1990s drew the ire of the Boston police union, which said his song, “One in the Chamba”, advocated violence against police, according to Globe reports from the time.
In 1999, the Globe reported that Scott sued Braintree police officers and number of others for civil rights violations and slander after being detained on suspicion of using a stolen credit card at a Macy’s store. He lost. In 2001, he publicly accused a Miami Beach police officer who had arrested him for speeding in his Ferrari of racism and brutality, according to news reports. Court records show he also spent several years embroiled in a federal tax case, before a US District Court jury in Boston found him not guilty in 2007.
Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @lauracrimaldi. Globe Correspondent Daniel Adams and John R. Ellement of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.
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