Tekashi 6ix9ine Gets Early Release From Prison Due to Coronavirus Vulnerability
Click here to read the full article.
Rapper Daniel “Tekashi 6ix9ine” Hernandez will be released from prison immediately over concerns for his health amidst the coronavirus pandemic, according to court documents obtained by Page Six.
Hernandez was sentenced in December to two years in prison and set for an early release on July 31. However, due to growing worry about the impact of coronavirus on the incarcerated, Hernandez’s attorney Lance Lazzaro filed a motion for his immediate release. The 23-year-old rapper has asthma, putting him at higher risk of death if he contracts the virus.
More from Variety
Film Academy Donates $6 Million to Support Motion Picture Employees Affected by Coronavirus
Looking Back at the Laws That Came With the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic
How Latin America's Entertainment Industry Is Responding to the Coronavirus Pandemic
New York southern district judge Paul Engelmayer granted Lazzaro’s request on the condition that Hernandez remains confined to his home and tracked by GPS.
“The defendant must remain at his residence except to seek any necessary medical treatment or to visit his attorney, in each instance with prior notice and approval by the Probation Department,” Engelmayer wrote in the court order.
Engelmayer originally denied Lazzaro’s motion last week, claiming that it should instead be filed to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. However, Lazzaro pointed out that Hernandez is imprisoned in a private facility, which puts the matter under Engelmayer’s jurisdiction.
Federal prosecutors including district attorney Geoffrey Berman did not oppose Hernandez’s release, meaning that he will serve the last four months of his prison sentence from the comfort of his home – though it remains unclear exactly where that will be.
Originally arrested in November 2018, Hernandez pled guilty to nine charges in February 2019 including racketeering conspiracy, firearms charges, narcotics trafficking, and violent crimes in aid of racketeering.
Hernandez committed these crimes in association with the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods gang, and later cooperated with authorities by testifying against specific gang members, therefore decreasing his sentence.
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
