Tekashi 6ix9ine released from prison early after 17 months
Tekashi 6ix9ine has been released from prison early after expressing his fears over the coronavirus pandemic.
The Gummo rapper, real name Daniel Hernandez, had served 17 months of a two-year sentence after being found guilty of racketeering charges.
According to TMZ, a judge granted Tekashi’s early release from an upstate New York prison today (2 April) after his lawyer expressed the rapper’s fears that he would be vulnerable to the Covid-19 virus as he is an asthma sufferer.
His compassionate release is effective immediately and he will serve the rest of his sentence at home on supervised release.
He will have a GPS monitor fitted for the first four months he will serve at home, and must remain at an address approved by his probation officer.
Tekashi will only be allowed to leave his home if he needs to seek medical care or to visit his attorney, and those visits must be pre-approved by his probation department.
According to TMZ, if his GPS monitoring is not working or malfunctions, he will be forced to have a daily video call with his probation officer instead.
New York has been heavily affected by coronavirus with more than 84,000 cases reported and over 2,220 deaths.
Tekashi, 23, had previously requested permission to serve the remainder of his sentence at home, but his request was initially denied.
It emerged earlier this week that Judge Paul Engelmayer made it clear that he intended to release Tekashi, provided that the court had legal authority to do so.
A letter which the judge had written to federal prosecutors reportedly said: ‘The parties are advised that, provided that the Court has legal authority to grant the relief requested by defense counsel, the Court intends to do so.’
On Wednesday, Tekashi’s lawyer Dawn Florio told Rolling Stone: ‘It’s a foregone conclusion, he’s getting released.’
The judge previously denied Tekashi’s request for release stating that the court ‘lacks the legal authority’ to grant it and suggested the Fefe rapper take his request to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) instead.
But, Tekashi is serving his sentence at a prison run by a private company and not the BOP.
In another letter, Tekashi’s lawyer Lance Lazarro detailed concerns that having asthma will mean catching the virus will be a lot more serious than if a normal person got it.
The 23-year-old was due for release from prison on 2 August, after being sentenced to 24 months behind bars, with five years of supervised release.
He was arrested in November 2018 and had faced 47 years in prison after admitting to joining the Nine Trey Bloods gang which he contributed to financially.
Coronavirus latest news and updates
- Visit our live blog for the latest updates: Coronavirus news live
- Read all new and breaking stories on our Covid-19 news page
- Coronavirus symptoms explained
- Find out the latest on which shops can stay open in a lockdown
- Who needs to go to work, who needs to stay at home and who is classed as a key worker?
Source: Read Full Article