Rapper Beanie Sigel Gets Year In Prison On Gun Rap
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Published · reached Usenet October 9, 2004
Rapper Beanie Sigel Gets Year In Prison On Gun Rap Sentence Was Under Guidelines
POSTED: 4:07 pm EDT October 8, 2004
PHILADELPHIA -- Gangster rapper Beanie Sigel was sentenced to one year in federal prison Friday on a gun-possession charge.
The sentence was significantly lower than what is called for under federal sentencing guidelines. Sigel could have been sentenced to more than three years.
The judge said he was taking leniency on Sigel because of the rapper's recent charitable work and because of progress Sigel has made in getting treatment for drug addiction. Sigel also must serve two years probation and pay a $25,000 fine.
The case dates from a traffic stop in Philadelphia in 2002. Sigel jumped from his car and ran, but the heavyset rapper didn't get far. Police said he tossed a loaded gun during the short chase. Officers also found prescription drugs and marijuana in Sigel's Cadillac Escalade.
The arrest was far from Sigel's first. His rap sheet, dating back to when he was a teenager, made it illegal for him to own a handgun. He faced a tougher sentence in federal court for being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun.
Sigel, whose birth name is Dwight Grant, has other problems looming.
In January he's scheduled to go on trial for the second time on charges that he shot and seriously wounded a man outside a West Philadelphia bar. His first trial ended in April with a hung jury.
He's also awaiting trial on a misdemeanor assault charge for allegedly punching a man in the face and fracturing his eye socket.
Sigel's legal problems didn't slow him down much this summer.
A judge let him out of jail last year to attend a drug treatment program, and he stayed free on $1 million bond while he completed his third album and filmed scenes for a sequel to his 2002 movie "State Property."
In the new flick, Sigel plays an imprisoned drug dealer.