I flew Helicopters for the military, the Kobe Bryant crash does seem, according to everything I've read and watched, and my experience all seems to point to it being an accident.

Solo flying in poor weather, low cloud and rising terrain going through a valley gap (in fact this very scenario has a nickname and is referred to as a "suckers gap") has caught many a pilot out. The reality is that I think he was trying to climb and go "VMC" on top to then pick up a radar service and an instrument approach to safety. He was only a few hundred feet from this when he hit the rising terrain.

Then again I've been wrong before! I can only say what I think happened with the info out there?