Tekashi 69 will spend another 11 months behind bars for gang crimes

Tekashi 69 has been sentenced to two years behind bars in exchange for snitching on fellow gang members, but will only serve another 11 months in jail. 

The rapper, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, appeared in court to be sentenced for charges including attempted murder, racketeering and armed robbery which he pleaded guilty to in February before famously agreeing to be  a star witness for the government to take down other member of his gang.  

He had been facing up to 47 years behind bars but asked to be let go for 13 months time served.

Prosecutors lauded him as a star witness who helped take down the Nine Trey bloods and fans of the musician excitedly speculated that he might walk free on Wednesday and his own lawyers said his life would be so dangerous on the outside that he was ‘already’ serving a life sentence. 

But Judge Paul Engelmayer took a far less favorable view of the rapper.  

He sentenced him to two years with a 13 month time-served credit, meaning he will spend another 11 months behind bars, and eviscerated him for ever becoming part of the violent gang.

 

A court artist’s sketch of Tekashi 69 on Wednesday at his sentencing hearing where he was given 24 months with a 13 month credit, meaning he will walk free by the end of 2020 

The rapper's long lost father, who is also called Daniel Hernandez, made a surprise appearance in the courtroom and tried to take the stand but was turned down by the judge and rebuked by his famous son. His abandonment of his family when Takeshi was a kid is something he includes in his songs

The rapper’s long lost father, who is also called Daniel Hernandez, made a surprise appearance in the courtroom and tried to take the stand but was turned down by the judge and rebuked by his famous son. His abandonment of his family when Takeshi was a kid is something he includes in his songs

‘Bruce Springsteen sang about murder,’ he said, explaining that while it is common for musicians to sing about crime or use it as a theme in their work, it does not mean they have to join gangs. 

‘Your choice to join Nine Trey was unnecessary. I see a lot of gangs, like a 76 defendant Bronx case. They fell in at a young age. 

‘That excuse is not available to you. By the time you began with Nine Trey, you were a nationally famous rapper. You had a prosperous future.

‘Your counsel says he joined to break out of poverty. I am not buying that. 

‘You were set,’ he said, adding that many of the crimes he informed on would have come to light anyway, even if he had not cooperated. 

Tekashi 69 in court in October 2018. He has not been photographed for the best part of a year

Tekashi 69 in court in October 2018. He has not been photographed for the best part of a year 

The judge eviscerated him by listing all of his violent crimes and attempted excuses for them and said there was no way he would allow him to walk free after serving 13 months for them. 

‘In the end my judgment is that 13 months is not enough,’ he said. 

The rapper will be on supervised release for five years once he completes his prison term. 

He then has to serve 300 hours of community service and pay a $35,000 fine.

‘Mr Hernandez, the worst part is over. There is a great deal to be admired about you. 

‘You’re learned a hard lesson here. I wish you very very well,’ he said.

The dramatic hearing included an appearance from the rapper’s biological father who showed up and attempted to speak for him but the judge refused him. 

‘You will not be going free today. For the better part of a year, you were part of a violent gang… 13 months is not long enough 

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer 

Tekashi was stunned by his father’s appearance and said he had not seen him since he was a young boy. The judge refused the man, saying: ‘It is way too late for that…you squandered that many years ago.’ 

When the rapper spotted him, he said: ‘Is this a f*****g joke, [with] everything that I go through?’, according to The New York Post.

Hernandez and his girlfriend outside the court after the sentencing. He said he thinks his son will be murdered when he is released from prison in two years

Hernandez and his girlfriend outside the court after the sentencing. He said he thinks his son will be murdered when he is released from prison in two years 

After the hearing, his father told reporters he thinks his son will be murdered. 

‘It’s a scary situation. He’s a target. Inside, nothing’s going to happen… outside, they’re going to try to kill,’ he said, adding his son’s facial tattoos make him an easy target. 

Earlier, a woman who was shot in the foot by a stray bullet in a gang shooting Tekashi was involved in in July 2018, cried on the stand.   

Tekashi, addressing her, said: ‘I know that throwing my money at a situation is not the best result. But whatever medical bills you want me to pay, I will. I’m sorry that happened to you.’ 

He said he ‘didn’t know where to begin’ but that he was not a bad person. 

‘If you told me in January 2017 I’d be a global star, I’d call your crazy.

‘If in January 2018 you’d tell me I’d be part of a federal indictment, I’d call you crazy,’ he said, reading from a prepared statement. 

Tekashi made a prepared statement where he asked for mercy and said he was a good person who had changed. His biological father, who he has not seen since he was a child, sat in the gallery behind him

Tekashi made a prepared statement where he asked for mercy and said he was a good person who had changed. His biological father, who he has not seen since he was a child, sat in the gallery behind him 

The musician's father - who has not been named - tried to take the stand but the judge would not allow it

The musician’s father – who has not been named – tried to take the stand but the judge would not allow it 

Judge Paul Engelmayer said the rapper's crimes were too violent for him not to serve more time

Judge Paul Engelmayer said the rapper’s crimes were too violent for him not to serve more time 

A woman named only as L.L. took the stand crying to tell how she was shot in the foot by a stray bullet during a gang shooting the rapper was involved in in July 2018

A woman named only as L.L. took the stand crying to tell how she was shot in the foot by a stray bullet during a gang shooting the rapper was involved in in July 2018

The rapper and his legal team on Wednesday during the sentencing hearing

The rapper and his legal team on Wednesday during the sentencing hearing 

His attorneys asked for time served with three years of supervised release and said he would disappear if he was given it. 

‘When you get to know him, he’s not a bad kid. If given a second chance by your Honor, I believe you will never see him again. 

‘I’m asking for time served and three years of supervised release,’ defense attorney Lazzaro said.

Judge Engelmayer rejected their pleas, saying: ‘I cannot agree with your counsel that time served it appropriate. In my judgment, your conduct is too violent and selfish to make 13 months reasonable. 

‘You will not be going free today. For the better part of a year, you were part of a violent gang,’ he said, before listing some of his crimes. 

‘You told the US Probation Department you were brainwashed by the gang. That might be partially true. But the relationship was symbiotic. 

‘They got something out of it. But so did you,’ he said dramatically. 

He said that while his cooperation was ‘courageous’ because he is ‘unusually recognizable’, he had to serve longer. 

Judge Engelmayer also said that while he ‘appreciated’ the many memes the case spawned, the severity of the violence the Nine Trey gang commits is no laughing matter.  

Earlier in the hearing, Assistant US Attorney Michael Longyear lauded the musician as a ‘high profile government witness’ who helped take down the ‘Godfather’ of the Nine Trey gang.  

Tekashi is seen flashing a Nine Trey Bloods gang sign with Mack (center) and another man

Tekashi is seen flashing a Nine Trey Bloods gang sign with Mack (center) and another man

Prosecutors said he would no longer be safe to roam free as he had before and that he had to abandon his family, including a baby, immediately after agreeing to work with the government. 

At Wednesday’s hearing, a woman – named only as ‘LL’ to protect her identity, cried on the stand as she told how she could have died in the July 2018 Brooklyn shooting. 

‘I was just an innocent bystander, shot in the foot. The bullet could have hit me in my head,’ she said, stifling sobs.

 ‘I was just an innocent bystander, shot in the foot. The bullet could have hit me in my head,

Innocent bystander named only as ‘L.L.’ who was shot in the foot by a stray bullet in a gang shooting Tekashi was involved in in July 2018 

‘Everyday I wake up, I have scars on my back. I was out of work.

‘The actions took a lot of me. I still have to go to the doctors. 

‘And for him to sit up here. I want to see him apologize. 

‘My mother could have lost her daughter,’ she went on, according to Inner City News which attended the hearing.

She called the musician the ‘mastermind’ and said: ‘I have bruises on me. I have to look at myself. I just want an apology. It took a lot of me to come here.

‘I want to face him. I want him to know, He hurt me. He hurt me!’ 

Lazzaro tried to win the court’s sympathy by saying Tekashi would make his mission to do good work and try to dissuade people from joining gangs if he was released. 

‘Mr Hernandez sits before you today, given a second chance. The only that comes from being a gang member is a life in jail. 

‘That will be his message, if given a second chance. He has tried to do the right thing,’ he said. 

He went on to describe his troubled childhood and told how he went to bed hungry because his family was poor. 

After his stepfather was murdered, he started working in a deli but gave ‘every dime’ to his mother, Lazzaro said.

The family would go to church every Sunday and Tekashi learned to sing there, the lawyer claimed. When he failed to make money as a clean cut singer, the lawyer said, he changed his image to become a gangster. 

Tekashi is seen with Ellison - whose went by the nickname 'Harv' - moments before the Nine Treys got in involved in a violent brawl at the Mets ballpark on April 13, 2018

Tekashi is seen with Ellison – whose went by the nickname ‘Harv’ – moments before the Nine Treys got in involved in a violent brawl at the Mets ballpark on April 13, 2018

The rapper has a daughter with Sara Molina (pictured together). He says he had to abandon them and will likely never be able to live with them again. He also has a girlfriend who has a tattoo of his face on her chest

The rapper has a daughter with Sara Molina (pictured together). He says he had to abandon them and will likely never be able to live with them again. He also has a girlfriend who has a tattoo of his face on her chest

Then, after the release of his song Gummo, he became involved with the gang. 

‘Maybe joining Nine Trey contributed to him becoming a star. But it was the worse decision he ever made. It has resulted in his imprisonment,’ he said.  

Lazzaro added that the rapper has already been given a life sentence because he will live in fear of being murdered forever. He will always have to have full time security. This is different than the normal cooperator. He’s a target for any gang member. 

‘He’s got a life long sentence,’ he said.

Wednesday’s sentencing brings an end to the long-winded legal saga that has eclipsed the young New Yorker’s music career and entertained the hip hop community since he was arrested in 2018. 

In November 2018, Hernandez was charged with six federal crimes including racketeering and firearms offenses. 

The indictment named him and five other Nine Trey members and it outlined the gang’s alleged involvement in drug sales and two shootings in New York City. 

The rapper flipped against the others and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. He pleaded guilty to six counts which, together, held a maximum sentence of 47 years behind bars. 

He then testified at the trial of the only two who did not plead guilty and helped secure their conviction. Since then, he has been waiting his fate in jail. He pleaded with the judge to show him mercy and wrote a groveling letter last week asking for just that. 

Two of his victims however wrote to the court to beg for the opposite. They said they were still ‘traumatized’ by an April 2018 armed robbery he was involved in.  

Tekashi had been waiting nervously in jail before Wednesday’s decision and was in the dark about what sentence he would receive, sources told TMZ earlier this week. 

During his testimony he described how he joined the Nine Treys to gain street credibility in exchange for a cut of his music industry earnings.

Defense lawyers attorneys for Ellison and Mack attempted to cast doubt on Tekashi’s damning account by suggesting it was embellished because he hopes it will earn him a break at his own sentencing, where he faces up to 47 years in prison.

The rapper was labeled a snitch on social media after reeling off the names of other stars he says were involved in the gang, including Cardi B (who denies any association with the gang) and Jim Jones. 

His testimony was so unreserved it prompted many to question how safe he would be on the outside, once whatever prison term he negotiated with the government is complete.

THE RISE AND FALL OF TEKASHI 69, FROM AN ECCENTRIC INSTAGRAM STAR TO GANGSTERS’ PET BEFORE HE LOST IT ALL AS A GOVERNMENT ‘SNITCH’  

Tekashi as a teenager

Tekashi as a teenager 

Tekashi 69 grew up in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and dropped out of school after the 8th grade, he says to help his mother pay rent after the death of his father when he was 13. 

In an interview about his childhood in 2017, he told the No Jumper podcast: ‘My pops died in eighth grade, and I just started bugging in school.  was 13. I was waiting for my pops to come back home, and he never came.’  

He started working and eventually turned to selling drugs to make money. Soon afterwards, he adopted his alter ego that was based on his obsession with Japanese culture. 

Tekashi69 was born and he began chronicling his life on social media. After amassing 15million Instagram followers, he started rapping.   

 In court, he described his persona as one of a ‘scumbag’. He has the numbers 69 tattooed hundreds of times across his body – including on his face –  and frequently refers to its sexual connotations. 

In photos, he posed with guns, money, drugs and alcohol. 

All of it was for ‘shock value’, he told the court, and he is in fact ‘Danny, a nice kid from Brooklyn.’ 

In court, he said his rap career began when someone told him he looked ‘cool’. 

‘At the store I was working in, Stay Fresh Grill, there was a guy by the name Peter Rogers always, always coming in there, buying things like tilapia, peanuts, stuff like that. 

‘He asked me if I, if I made music, if I rap. I was like, 

‘No. And he was like: Well, you got the image for it. You look cool. I was like, you know, I took it into consideration, and we started making music with the guy,’ he said.

LEGAL WOES BEGIN

The rapper was arrested first in 2015 for taking part in the production and dissemination of a sex tape involving a 13-year-old girl. 

He was not the man who had sex with her, and was given a probation sentence for his role because he had shown ‘remorse’. 

Tekashi 69 first built his fan base then turned to music after harvesting a following of 14.4million on Instagram

Tekashi 69 first built his fan base then turned to music after harvesting a following of 14.4million on Instagram

The sentencing occurred in October 2018. He had already been arrested while awaiting sentencing for it for assault and for driving without a license.

In November that year, federal prosecutors who had been investigating the Nine Trey gang charged Tekashi in their indictment. 

He was put in jail and, the next day, made a deal with prosecutors to inform on the others charged in exchange for leniency. 

Before his troubles with the law, Tekashi had found some success with his expletive-laden rap songs Stoopid and Dummy. 

THE CASE AGAINST THE NINE TREY GANGSTA BLOODS

Tekashi was one of five people charged by federal prosecutors in a November 2018 indictment.

An additional six were later charged. In total, 11 were arrested and charged as part of the case. 

All but two pleaded guilty to a variety of crimes including racketeering, drugs offenses and firearms offenses. 

Tekashi said he and his entourage were at Barclays to watch an Adrien Broner fight when they ran into Casanova's crew in a tunnel under the venue and a brawl broke out

Tekashi said he and his entourage were at Barclays to watch an Adrien Broner fight when they ran into Casanova’s crew in a tunnel under the venue and a brawl broke out

Some have been sentenced and some, like Tekashi, are waiting for their sentenced. 

It is unclear if any of the other defendants cut deals like he did to win leniency for themselves.

Tekashi posing with an assault rifle

Tekashi posing with an assault rifle  

The 11 charged were; Jamel Jones aka Mel Murda, Kifano Jordan aka Shotti, Jensel Butler aka Ish, Daniel Hernandez aka Tekashi  69, Fuguan Lovick aka Fu Banga, Faheem Walter aka Crippy, Dernard Butler, aka Drama, Kintea McKenzie aka Kooda B, Roland Martin aka Roe Murda, Anthony Ellison aka Harv and Aljermiah Mack aka Nuke. 

Mack and Ellison are the only two who did not plead guilty. Their trial is where Tekashi testified. 

According to prosecutors’ indictment, they were all part of the violent Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods and committed, among other things, murder, robberies and drurg trafficking.

‘This gang…wreaked havoc on New York City, engaging in brazen acts of violence. 

‘Showing reckless indifference to others’ safety, members of the gang were allegedly involved in robberies and shootings, including a shooting inside the crowded Barclay’s Center, and a shooting in which an innocent bystander was hit,’  U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said in November last year. 

THE TRIAL AND TESKASHI’S TESTIMONY 

The trial began in September with Tekashi serving as the state’s primary witness.

Over three days, he let rip on former gang mates. 

On the first day of his testimony, he identified both defendants as members of the gang and said that while he was a part of it, he’d never shot anyone. 

‘We participated in a lot of crimes. Robberies, assaults, drugs,’ he said on the first day.

Anthony 'Harv' Ellison (pictured) and Aljermiah 'Nuke' Mack were found guilty of racketeering and firearm charges on Thursday in Manhattan federal court

Aljermiah 'Nuke' Mack

Anthony ‘Harv’ Ellison (left) and Aljermiah ‘Nuke’ Mack (right) were found guilty of racketeering and firearm charges

He said he believed they kept him around as a witness to what they were allegedly doing because he was rich and famous.

‘That’s what people liked. It was just a formula, a blueprint that I found that worked,’ he said.  

SOME OF TEKASHI’S TESTIMONY 

Mr. Hernandez, I’m going to ask you some questions about the lyrics of “Gummo.” Beginning with the first line, there’s a reference to a word “blicky.” What is blicky?

Blicky is another word for gun.

And on the second line, there’s the phrase in the middle “drum it holds 50.” What is that in reference to?

Drum is an attachment that you have to a gun, carries extra clips, bullets. 

Turning to the second stanza, second line of the second stanza, there’s a line there, “in the hood with them Billy N-word and them Hoover N-word.” What is that in reference to?

Me stating who I’m around.

And what is Billy?

 Billy’s Nine Trey. 

On day two, he went further. At times he impersonated some of the other gang members as he recalled conversations he’d had with them, speaking so frantically and becoming so easily distracted that he had to be refocused by attorneys.

He translated street slang for the jury and listed the senior leadership of the gang by name without hesitation. 

He also described being kidnapped by Ellison, one of the defendants, during a gang dispute over who would help run his career. 

‘I had mad thoughts going through my head,’ he said. He claimed he was being ‘extorted’ by the gang and that he turned on them because of it.

The defense attorneys questioned his version of the story, particularly when he said he escaped by jumping out of a moving car and into another, begging to be whisked away to safety. 

The final day of his testimony was perhaps the most shocking.

It was then that he named Cardi B and Jim Jones as other members of the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods. 

He had been asked if he joined the gang to further his career and answered ‘yes’. 

Lawyers then asked him if he ‘knew’ that Cardi B had also been in the gang. He replied ‘yes’ but said he did not pay attention to her career. 

Cardi denied his allegations on Twitter, saying she had never been part of that gang but that she was part of ‘Brim’. 

He also implicated Jim Jones, another rapper, by identifying his voice while being played a recording of a conversation.   

HOW HIP HOP REACTED 

Since he testified against his former colleagues, shocked rappers have been quick to distance themselves from Tekashi and to undermine his position in the industry. 

Many have described him as a ‘hungry’ internet star who clung to fame. 

Snoop Dogg described him as a ‘rat’ and compared him to Martha Stewart, his unlikely co-host on a VH1 cooking show. 

‘As we watch Tekashi 69 (or whatever his name is) snitch on EVERYBODY, I invite you all to remember Martha Stewart snitched on NOT ONE soul during her trial.

‘Baby girl kept it 10 toes down and ate that prison sentence by herself, like the true baddie she is,’ read a meme he posted. 

He captioned it: ‘That’s my M. F. Home girl…solid as a rocc’ (sic). 

Stewart was jailed for five months for charges relating to insider trading in 2004.  

Cardi hits back: Although Cardi's rep denied her affiliation to the Bloods, the Bronx rapper took to Twitter to say otherwise in a since-deleted post writing: 'You just said it yourself…Brim not 9 Trey. I never been 9 trey or associated with them'

Cardi hits back: Although Cardi’s rep denied her affiliation to the Bloods, the Bronx rapper took to Twitter to say otherwise in a since-deleted post writing: ‘You just said it yourself…Brim not 9 Trey. I never been 9 trey or associated with them’

She also liked this tweet saying Cardi B was affiliation with the Brim Bloods, not the 9 Trey crew Tekashi ran with

She also liked this tweet saying Cardi B was affiliation with the Brim Bloods, not the 9 Trey crew Tekashi ran with 

The case sparked countless memes. The judge on Wednesday said he 'appreciated' them

The case sparked countless memes. The judge on Wednesday said he ‘appreciated’ them 



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