Judge to Rule on Trial for Rapper : Courts: Lawyers for Snoop Doggy Dogg and two other defendants are seeking dismissal of the murder charges. They say new evidence calls case into doubt.

A judge said Friday that lawyers for gangsta rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg and two other men have raised serious issues in their attempt to have murder charges dismissed against their clients and he indicated that he would spend the weekend studying their arguments.

Superior Court Judge Paul G. Flynn will issue a ruling Monday on whether the 22-year-old rapper, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, his bodyguard and a friend will stand trial in the August, 1993, death of Philip Woldermariam, 20.

The prosecution contends that the incident was a gang-related drive-by shooting. The defense lawyers argued Friday that Broadus’ bodyguard, McKinley Lee, 23, shot Woldermariam in self-defense at a Westside park after Woldermariam reached for a gun. Broadus and the third man, Shawn Abrams, 22, are charged with aiding and abetting.

The defense lawyers told Flynn that when the murder charges were filed, the prosecution was acting on the belief that Woldermariam was unarmed. After two of Woldermariam’s friends told a grand jury last year that they hid Woldermariam’s gun before police arrived, the prosecution continued to pursue the charges, they said.

“This is an opportunity to weed out a case that shouldn’t go to trial,” Abrams’ lawyer, Johnnie Cochran, told reporters after the hearing.

But Woldermariam’s family said they oppose dismissing the charges. His sister, Sophia, 22, said she does not know why her brother was shot, but that she believes his friends were pressured into making up the gun story to protect Broadus’ successful career.

She said her brother, who with the rest of her family came to the United States from Ethiopia to escape civil war, was not in a gang, as the defense and witnesses have contended. Broadus also denies he is a gang member.