LOS ANGELES — A month before the retrial of a wrongful death suit brought against Marion "Suge" Knight by relatives of a man run over and killed by the former rap mogul with a pickup truck in Compton in 2015, the imprisoned record producer's attorney is seeking to withdraw his representation.

In court papers filed Friday with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas D. Long, lawyer David Kenner attributes his decision to a "breakdown in the attorney-client relationship." A hearing on Kenner's motion is scheduled for April 3, four days before the scheduled start of the retrial.

The first trial took place in Compton Superior Court. Long declared a mistrial in June 2022 with jurors deadlocked 7-5 in favor of finding Knight liable.

The Compton-born Knight, now 59, pleaded no contest in September 2018 to voluntary manslaughter for killing 55-year-old Terry Carter after an argument near a promotional shoot for the movie "Straight Outta Compton" on Jan. 29, 2015. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen sentenced him to 28 years in prison a month after his plea.

Knight also admitted an allegation that he used a deadly weapon -- a truck -- during the commission of the crime in the parking lot of Tam's Burgers in the 1200 block of West Rosecrans Avenue. A replica of the business was featured during the Super Bowl halftime show in February 2022 at SoFi Stadium.

The plaintiffs in the civil suit, filed in June 2015, are Carter's widow, Lillian, and daughters Crystal and Nekaya.

Knight also struck and seriously injured Cle "Bone" Sloan during the confrontation, which was captured on surveillance video. Knight had claimed he was trying to flee the scene in his truck and contended that Sloan, who was working security for the film set, had a gun.

Knight testified on a virtual basis during the civil suit trial.

The former NFL replacement player co-founded Death Row Records, which in its heyday in the early 1990s was generating revenues of about $100 million per year. He helped launch some of rap's biggest acts, including Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur. He was with Shakur the night he was gunned down in Las Vegas in 1996.

Knight served five years in prison for assault and federal weapons violations, and after his release in 2001, spent another 10 months behind bars for violating parole by hitting a Hollywood nightclub valet. In August 2014, he was shot a half-dozen times at a Los Angeles-area nightclub.