The charges stem from a shooting incident in April of 2003, where Sigel was stopped by police because after officers noticed his vehicle's license plate was covered. After attempting to pull the rapper's vehicle over, he sped off until was pursued and stopped.
During the chase, Sigel threw a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol out of his car, which was later found out to be stolen. And Sigel, a convicted felon from 1995, is not allowed to possess any firearms. After a search of the vehicle, a variety of prescription drugs were found including two 16-ounce bottles of codeine, one bottle of the narcotic hydrocodone, 38 tablets containing either oxycodone or codeine and a small bag of marijuana.
The rapper was sentenced to a year in prison and was fined fine of $25,000 by federal judge, R. Barclay Surrick, who granted him some leniency for his "post-arrest rehabilitation" and charitable works in the urban community.
Sigel (real name: Dwight Grant) responded to the judge's leniency by thanking him for "giving me the second chance" and the chance to turn his "life around." "I know now the situation I was in was a reckless and dangerous situation," the rapper told the judge. He originally faced a sentence of 37 months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines on his guilty plea for the charges he faced.
The rapper will report to federal prison in 30 days and be credited time served before he was released on bail and good behavior while locked up. These variables could see Sigel freed next July.
Beanie Sigel has used his time wisely, knowing that he would serve an unknown length of time in prison. He worked overtime to complete his third album, The B Coming, so it can be released in December, and finished all his scenes in the sequel to the 2002 gangster flick "State Property."
In July of 2003, Sigel was arrested on attempted murder charges when he allegedly shot a man after an argument over a woman took place outside the Pony Tail Bar in Philadelphia.
He was tried for attempted murder for the incident, but the trial ended in a hung jury April of this year. In January 2005, Sigel will be in court for a re-trial. There is also pending trial date for an assault charge in which Sigel is accused of punching a 53-year-old man in the face in January 2003.
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