Post by merg on Apr 8, 2004 10:34:40 GMT -5
Source Rolling Stone.com
Beanie Sigel May Do Time
Troubled rapper to enter a guilty plea on weapons charges
Beanie Sigel (a.k.a. Dwight Grant) is planning to plead guilty to federal weapons charges tomorrow in a Philadelphia courtroom.
Sigel faces a maximum of eleven years in prison for possession of a gun by a convicted felon and drug possession, but according to the Philadelphia Inquirer his plea could reduce the sentence to three years.
The charges stem from an April 2003 arrest, where Sigel allegedly threw a handgun out of a car during a traffic stop. When Sigel appeared in a Philadelphia courtroom last July to answer to a previous assault charge, federal authorities arrested him, citing the April incident as a probation violation from a 1995 drug-trafficking charge.
The thirty-year-old Sigel is no stranger to trouble, the drug-trafficking rap was on his sheet from the mid-Nineties, prior to a vocational shift when he signed to Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella label. Sigel's hard-knock raps seemed to reflect his life, as he also scored a pair of simple assault charges in 2001, though 2003 was a particularly rough year for the rapper. Last July he turned himself over to police after he was accused of shooting Terrence Speller, 26, in the foot and stomach at a West Philadelphia bar, just hours after Sigel performed on Jay-Z's Roc the Mic Tour. Sigel was charged with attempted murder; jury selection in that case begins next week.
Sigel was initially to be held without bail on the federal charges, but he was later released on a $1 million bond to enter drug rehabilitation and anger management programs, which he successfully completed. Over the years, Sigel has also made regular appearances and done charitable work in the south Philadelphia neighborhood where he was raised. In the months since his release last summer, Sigel has kept a quieter profile, putting in time with his State Property brand (which includes clothing, albums and films) and on his third album, The Becoming, which was initially slated for release this year.
ANDREW DANSBY
(April 7, 2004)