Already facing two years in prison for tax evasion charges, Beanie Sigel(born Dwight Grant) got some more bad news on Wednesday when he was sentenced to up to two years for a drug possession? charge.
According to the Daily Times, Sigel pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a misdemeanor charge of illegally possessing Percocet, which landed him a county prison sentence of six-to-23 months. Sigel, 39, has been in prison since August, following a traffic stop in which police found him in possession of prescription drugs. Two weeks before he was slated to being a two-year prison run on tax evasion charges, Sigel was arrested on August 29 after police observed the tan Ford Fusion he was riding in following another vehicle too closely and swerving out of its lane.
While Sigel was not driving, a search of the car turned up several prescription bottles and a small amount of pot on the driver. When officers searched the rapper, who was asleep when the car was pulled over, they found nearly $4,600 in cash, a bottle of codeine syrup with the label scratched off and several unidentified prescription pills wrapped in plastic bag inside a cigarette pack. (Sigel claimed he won the cash at a casino.)
Police later found a loaded .38 caliber handgun in the car and since both men are convicted felons who are prohibited from possessing firearms, they were each arraigned on charges of drug possession, possession with intent to deliver, persons not to possess firearms and firearms not to be carried without a license and conspiracy. Sigel had previously spent time in prison on a federal firearms charge.
The rapper’s attorney is hoping that his client, who celebrated his 39th birthday on Wednesday, can serve his two sentences concurrently. “Mr. Grant has been a successful entertainer and musician in the Philadelphia community for decades,” attorney Carson Morris told the court. “Obviously, he’s had an incredible amount of success and opportunity in his life. He’s also made some mistakes, which have ended up putting him in custody. He’s ready to go ahead and put that behind him and move on with is life. He has a lot of catching up to do, but he also has a lot of talent and a lot of opportunity, hopefully. So the prospect is that he can get out and move on and start doing something productive with his life.”
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