A Louisiana judge sentenced rapper Lil Boosie (born Torrence Hatch) to prison for four years on Monday for violating the terms of his probation. According to
WAFB News, District Court Judge Chip Moore revoked Boosie's probation after an ankle monitor indicated that the MC had violated the terms of his release more than once by leaving his home during house arrest.
After taking a plea deal to a third-offense marijuana-possession charge in September, Boosie, 25, was expected to receive a 10-year sentence with all but the first two years suspended, likely keeping him behind bars for a year or so.
Boosie was convicted on drug and gun charges in September in connection with an October 2008 arrest when police found a bag of marijuana, a blunt and a gun in a vehicle he was driving. The pot charge along could have landed him in prison for 20 years, with a mandatory minimum of five years for the gun charge. After the plea, Moore ordered Boosie to be electronically monitored and to clear all concert dates with the court while awaiting sentencing, according to Louisiana newspaper The Advocate. But when the judge found out that the rapper had violated his terms, Moore ordered him to spend four years in prison, meaning he will likely do at least two full years, his lawyer said.
Boosie was ordered to report to prison immediately after Monday's hearing, and he will be on probation for five years following his release. The firearm charge will be dropped if Boosie successfully completes his probation.
Before his sentencing, Boosie appeared at the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta last month and told MTV News that the prison stretch was just a "minor setback," predicting that he would only be gone for a year at most.
"I gotta go away for, like, 10 months to a year," Boosie said at the time. "It's just a minor setback for a major comeback. I was gonna take 'em to trial, but I'm not gonna take them to trial. They offered me a deal. In Louisiana, you can't really win, bruh. So I'm gonna do my year, come back home, step it up even more. I leave on November 9."
Though his latest album, Superbad: The Return of Boosie Bad Azz, has failed to make much of a dent on the charts since its release in September, the MC said he's already got his next one in the pipe.
"I turned in the album this Tuesday to Warner Bros. It's gonna be called Free at Last," he said at the time. "It'll drop the week I come home. It's gonna be crazy. Crazy, man."
That album features cameos from B.G. and Young Jeezy. Boosie said he's already shot four or five videos for the effort.
This report is from MTV News.
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