Tekashi 6ix9ine Denied Request Of Finishing Prison Sentence From Home Due To Coronavirus PA/6ix9ine/Instagram

A judge has denied a request put forward by Tekashi 6ix9ine’s lawyer to allow the rapper to serve out the final four months of his sentence from home in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Tekashi 6ix9ine, 23 – real name Daniel Hernandez – is asthmatic, and therefore particularly vulnerable to the virus.

The rapper, who is expected to be released July 31, was also diagnosed with bronchitis and sinusitis in October, as detailed in a letter by defence attorney Lance Lazarro.

Advert

Tekashi 6ix9ine PA Images

As reported by the Associated Press, Lazarro claimed his client had recently complained to prison authorities about suffering a shortness of breath.

However, he was not permitted to be taken to a hospital, despite the recommendations of his facility’s medical director.

The lawyer went on to say that Tekashi is serving out his two-year prison term in a private jail as he had cooperated with prosecutors and because the US government now has control over him as a cooperator.

Advert

Martha Stewart Has More Street Cred Than Tekashi 6ix9ine PA Images

US District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer, rejected a Lazarro’s request, commenting in a written order that he didn’t have legal authority to change the sentence, which prosecutors had pointed out when opposing the request.

However, Judge Engelmayer, who had sentenced Tekashi to prison, has said he would have ordered home confinement instead of a prison sentence had he known in December about the pandemic.

The judge added that he would be issuing ‘instructive guidance’ for the Bureau of Prisons to use should it consider an application for Tekashi 6ix9ine’s early release to home confinement.

Advert

Tekashi69 arrest arraignment in Houston Getty

Issuing his order, Judge Engelmayer said he ‘could not have known that the final four months of Mr. Hernandez’s sentence would be served at a time of a worldwide pandemic to which persons with asthma, like Mr. Hernandez, have heightened vulnerability’.

He continued:

Had the Court known that sentencing Mr. Hernandez to serve the final four months of his term in a federal prison would have exposed him to a heightened health risk, the Court would have directed that these four months be served instead in home confinement.

Advert

After Judge Engelmayer issued this order on Wednesday, March 25, Lazarro said that it was ‘a strong recommendation to the BOP to release him immediately’.

Tekashi69 Getty

Tekashi 6ix9ine earned leniency from charges which could have led to him serving a mandatory minimum 37 years in prison testimony after testifying against alleged gang members of the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods.

Prior to his incarceration, Tekashi 6ix9ine had gained success as a rapper. In 2018, his multi-platinum hit song, Fefe, with Nicki Minaj, peaked at No. 3 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Advert