6ix9ine has been released from prison much sooner than his originally slated release date due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.
Speaking with XXL on Thursday evening (April 2), 6ix9ine's attorney Dawn Florio confirmed that the rapper has officially been released from prison. This confirmation arrives hours after it was announced that Tekashi would be released from prison and into home confinement. Florio says the rapper will have to wear an ankle monitor while he is at home serving his sentence. Speaking with reporter Lisa Evers, Florio reportedly said that Tekashi will be allowed to use social media and that he will record new music for his record label 10k Projects.
6ix9ine has been behind bars since he was arrested for federal racketeering and firearms charges in Nov. 18, 2018. Judge Paul Engelmayer granted Tekashi a prison release because the rapper's asthma condition was deemed likely to make a bout with the coronavirus even worse if he were to catch it.
The "Fefe" rapper was scheduled to be released from prison on Aug. 2, 2020, but he'll now serve the time from home until that date comes to pass.
A little over a week ago, 6ix9ine's lawyer, Lance Lazzaro, had asked Judge Engelmayer to let the rapper be released into home confinement because of Tekashi's medical condition. However, the judge did not have the legal authority to approve it because 6ix9ine had already been sentenced and his attorneys hadn't exhausted all of their options to get him into home confinement. It was only after Tekashi's team had done so that Judge Engelmayer could take the next step.
In a letter he wrote about the situation, Judge Engelmayer noted that if he would have known that the coronavirus pandemic was going to occur during the last four months of Tekashi's sentence, the rapper would not have had to serve that time in prison.
With that in mind, Engelmayer advised Tekashi's attorneys to file the request for compassionate release with the Bureau of Prisons. Dawn Florio, who works as an attorney for 6ix9ine's case, tells XXL that the BOP was unable to grant Tekashi's request because he's in a private facility and not under the control of the bureau. The rhymer had exhausted all of his options and the decision was now in the hands of the court and government prosecutors.
In court documents XXL obtained on April 1, Judge Engelmayer acknowledges that 6ix9ine had exhausted all of his options to secure a prison release. He then says that if he's got the legal authority to do so—that is, if the government doesn't oppose 6ix9ine being released to home confinement—he would order Tekashi to be released. In a response letter they filed that same day, the government attorneys said they didn't oppose 6ix9ine's release to home confinement. At that point, it appeared that 6ix9ine's release was imminent. Now, he's out from behind bars.
While Tekashi's sentence still isn't expected to end for four months, it appears that the worst part of his sentence is over. On Dec. 18, 2019, about two months after 6ix9ine testified against his fellow Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods associates as part of a deal to get his sentence lightened, the Brooklyn rapper was sentenced to 24 months behind bars and five years of supervised release.
Since he'd already been behind bars since November 2018, 6ix9ine was only ordered to serve an additional 11 months after receiving his sentencing and was expected to be released this November. Because of a government law that states that an inmate only has to serve 85 percent of their time behind bars with good behavior, he was expected to be released in August.
Tekashi was arrested on Nov. 18, 2018 by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents in New York City, along with five other members of the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods. The men were all taken into custody on racketeering and firearms charges.
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