NEW YORK– Apologetic rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine was sentenced Tuesday to 45 days in jail by a federal judge who said repeated violations of his probation after his cooperation against a violent gang earned him leniency in a criminal case, showing he lacks sufficient respect for the rules of the justice system.
Judge Paul A. Engelmayer ordered the additional time spent behind bars, five years after he handed the artist, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, a two-year prison sentence that would likely have spent decades behind bars if he had not testified during the trial against the violent gang. known as the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods.
The Manhattan judge said five violations of probation rules, including failing to appear for a drug test, traveling from his Florida home to Las Vegas without permission and lying to his probation officer, “tell me loud and clear that you don’t believe the rules.” ‘. apply to you.”
He wondered if Tekashi 6ix9ine, 28, thought he was above the law “maybe because you are a famous and rich rapper.”
“But the same rules apply to you,” Englemayer said.
Before the judge announced the prison sentence, Tekashi asked 6ix9ine for mercy. He said he was disappointed in himself for having to face him again just six months before his probation would have expired.
“I’m very sorry,” he said. “I don’t minimize my actions. I take full responsibility. I let myself down. I abandoned my family. Give me a chance to clean up.”
He said he didn’t want the judge to “consider me ill-mannered or a bad person,” and he emphasized that “I don’t go out of my way to break the law.”
After his prison sentence ends, Tekashi 6ix9ine will be subject to one month of house arrest, one month of house arrest and one month of curfew, in addition to an extension of his probation for one year. He is also banned from international travel and will face electronic monitoring.
In April 2020, Tekashi 6ix9ine was granted compassionate release from prison several months before his sentence was due to be served because asthma made him susceptible to the coronavirus, which was spreading through the country’s jails and prisons.
He was arrested on October 29 and has spent the past two weeks in solitary confinement, a particularly harsh detention that the judge described as a reason why he did not impose a three-month prison sentence.
In 2018, Tekashi 6ix9ine was arrested on charges that he joined Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods before attempting to incite others to commit violence against his perceived enemies.
Engelmayer said the singer’s parole violations were not “severely serious” but were “profound” violations of the court’s trust.
He also said that Tekashi 6ix9ine has “repeatedly flown very close to the flame,” while citing two cases in which he was arrested in the Dominican Republic and given a speeding ticket for allegedly driving 130 mph in a 65-mile /u zone.
“Your repeated run-ins with the law underscore the need to get this message across to you,” the judge said.