Weldon Angelos, a former music producer who worked with Snoop Dogg, has received a pardon from President Trump.
Angelos, who was sentenced to 55 years in prison without parole in 2004 for selling $350 worth of weed to an undercover police officer while possessing a firearm, was one of 15 people who Trump pardoned on Tuesday (Dec. 22). "Feels great to have been fully pardoned by the President of the United States. Now it’s time for more pardons and commutations," Angelos wrote on Instagram about the good news.
Angelos executive produced Snoop Dogg's We From the LBC Soundtrack, which was released in 2002. Later that year, he was targeted in a drug sting by police who believed he was part of a local street gang. After purchasing small amounts of marijuana from the armed producer on multiple occasions, police searched his home and found another weapon. He reportedly turned down a 15-year plea deal and was eventually convicted of 13 charges including drug, firearm, and money laundering charges. He was also hit with three counts of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Due to mandatory sentencing, he was given 55 years.
There was immediate public outcry about the sentencing, even from the judge who was mandated to hand it down, Paul Cassell. Cassell reached out to President Obama in 2016 about commuting the harsh sentence. “The sentence was unjust, uncruel, and even irrational…because his appeals have been exhausted, the only solution for Angelos is a Presidential commutation. I urge you to swiftly commute his sentence,” he wrote. Obama obliged and commuted Angelos' sentence the same year, and he was released.
“He had to provide means for his family and himself,” Snoop Dogg said of the case in 2017. “It wasn’t like it was a violent crime he was committing – he was just hustling.”
Since his release, Angelos has been a advocate for justice reform. Now pardoned, his record will be expunged and his rights fully restored. Lil Wayne fans are hoping the rapper will receive the same treatment from Trump in his federal gun case.
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