More Omar: Michael Kenneth Williams At Jimmy Henchman Trial

• Tweet
• Pin It

As the beleaguered residents of East Baltimore understand all too well, when Omar’s in town, you know it. In the space of a day, Omar Little – Michael Kenneth Williams – has gone from a pleasant memory of the latest season of Boardwalk Empire to all over the crime news cycle.

Granted, it’s a bit of a slow cycle. But by any measure, it’s raining Omar.

And it’s for weird stuff, too. Yesterday, it was starring in a video from Funny or Die, The Wire: The Musical.

Today, it’s for attending a high-profile trial for convicted drug dealer, James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond. Omar Little’s presence didn’t sway the jury. Rosemond was found guilty in Federal Court of distributing millions of dollars worth of cocaine.

Why should you give half a damn? After all, this guy’s not even Michael Williams’ manager any more. Rosemond helped manage him back in the day, stuck him in a couple of music videos and helped land him the D-grade role of “Cable Guy Mike” in The Cookout 2. Not exactly A Star is Born-caliber assistance. Their main bond is that they grew up together in East Flatbush. That would forge people together for life, I’m sure.

No, this is big news to you, crime-loving American, because of James Rosemond’s link to another iconic thug besides Omar, Tupac Shakur. Rosemond was connected to Tupac’s shooting death by Chuck Philips of the LA Times back in the day, who pointed several fingers’ worth of evidence in Jimmy Henchman’s direction.

As these things go, muttering has stuck involvement in Biggie Smalls’ murder on Jimmy Henchman too, by way of the logical connection that anybody who whacked Tupac would have done Biggie as well.

That’s all real tenuous to me. If Rosemond’s a candidate for Tupac’s killer, he’s standing in a considerable line, somewhere behind Suge Knight and ahead of the LAPD. What’s more, Rosemond may have grown up with The Man Who Would Be Omar, but his closest attachments are to the R&B crowd. Jimmy Henchman business associates have included Diddy, Wyclef Jean and Mario Winans. The Game is about as hard a rapper as Jimmy took on.

Can I see him shoveling coke up their noses to keep the groove going? Yes. Killing the major gangster rap luminaries of their age? No.