Casanova is proposing a reduction to his 15-year prison sentence on grounds of “extraordinary acceptance of responsibility” for his involvement with the Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation Bloods Gang.
The Brooklyn rapper was one of 18 people charged in a racketeering case that involved drug dealing and murder, among others crimes. His punishment was based largely around a 2018 incident wherein he allegedly assaulted a woman for taking a video of him at a diner.
The 36-year-old is said to have violently snatched Niya Rucker’s cellphone and then deleted footage of himself from it after she recorded him without consent. For that, he was slapped with two counts of felony robbery that his legal team is now disputing because the victim left the restaurant with her phone.
As per AllHipHop, Casanova and his lawyer are asserting that the outcome of what he did does not align with the legal definition of “robbery.” Whereas he has not denied the claims made against him, he does believe that the ramifications do not fairly match his actions.
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Last week, the “Set Trippin” MC shared an update from behind prison walls, admitting that his relationship with loneliness is “terrifying.” The embattled rapper took to Twitter to share some insightful yet harrowing ruminations from his cell.
“I am terrified of how loneliness brings me a twisted kind of comfort,” he wrote, seemingly in reference his time in solitary confinement.
Casanova received 188 months behind bars from U.S. District Judge Philip M. Halpern in June, with the judge calling him a “high-profile leader of a vicious street gang.”
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“Caswell Senior is not just a notorious recording artist, but he is also a high-profile leader of a vicious street gang and a magnet for gang violence,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a press release.
“At a crowded Miami house party, Senior personally fired a gun that seriously injured and could have killed a victim, inciting a shootout. Further, Senior’s stature in the community was central to Gorilla Stone’s successful recruitment and nationwide expansion.”
He added: “Today’s sentencing — along with the other significant sentences that have been imposed in this case — shows once again that gang life is not worth it and will lead to many years in prison.”
Casanova has since severed ties with the Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation Bloods Gang.