Tekashi69, rapper who cooperated against Nine Trey Bloods, sentenced to 2 years

NEW YORK - The best performance of Tekashi69's life got him two years in prison.

The rapper from Brooklyn scored the relatively lenient sentence Wednesday thanks to his cooperation with the feds against the gang that made him famous. His betrayal of the Nine Trey Bloods made the trash-talking “GUMMO” rapper a hip-hop meme. The 13 months he's already spent behind bars will count toward the sentence, meaning that with credit for good behavior he could be out of prison in seven months.

Tekashi, 23, appeared disappointed when Judge Paul Engelmayer imposed the sentence.

“Your conduct was too violent, too sustained, too destructive, too selfish and too reckless with respect to public safety to make a sentence of 13 months at all reasonable,” Engelmayer said.

Tekashi's attorney Lance Lazzaro confirmed they had expected time-served. During remarks before the packed courtroom before learning his fate, Tekashi - for once - was at a loss for words.

“Your honor, my life is so crazy I don't know where to start,” he said, choking up and shedding a few tears.

He apologized, accepted responsibility for his role in the mayhem and said he had set a bad example for his millions of fans.

“I can't blame no one but myself. I'm not a victim. I put myself in this position from day one,” he said, acknowledging that he'd readily embraced the gang lifestyle.

In the end, it was Tekashi's gleeful leading role in gang violence - including shootings at Times Square and the Barclays Center - that convinced Engelmayer that the rapper couldn't walk out of the courtroom a free man. The judge listed seven separate incidents in late 2017 and 2018 that all could have easily escalated into major acts of violence that killed bystanders.

“You were the impetus and often instigator for all that violence,” Engelmayer said.

The entertainer, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, used Nine Trey as his “personal hit squad,” the judge said. Plenty of musicians sing about crime, Engelmayer noted, citing Bruce Springsteen's “Murder Incorporated.”

“You, Mr. Hernandez, essentially joined Murder Incorporated,” Englemayer said.

Still, the judge credited Tekashi's decision to flip.

“Your cooperation was impressive. It was game changing. It was complete and it was brave,” Engelmayer said.

The sentence could have been much harsher.

Tekashi pleaded guilty to nine gang, gun and drug charges carrying a minimum of 37 years in prison. His decision to turn state's evidence allowed Engelmayer to depart from that mandatory minimum. Tekashi has been in protective custody away from other gang members since November 2018.

Tekashi was also sentenced to five years of supervised release after he serves his prison time and must pay a $35,000 fine.

A two-week trial of two Nine Trey gangsters, Anthony “Harv” Ellison and Aljermiah “Nuke” Mack, revealed that in 2017 and 2018 Tekashi and the gang developed a mutually beneficial arrangement. Tekashi gained street cred thanks to his membership in Nine Trey. The Bushwick rapper's fame, meanwhile, raised the gang's profile and provided an additional stream of revenue through his wildly successful music career.

But Engelmayer noted that Nine Trey was not settling scores with rappers until Tekashi came on board.

“I reject the portrait of you as a passive participant,” the judge said. “It's simply not accurate to portray you as a naive young man.”

In the summer of 2018 the gang committed many brazen acts of mayhem around the city. Tekashi boasted about many of the incidents online right after they happened.

Tekashi filmed as his gangbanging manager, Kifano “Shotti” Jordan, robbed a rival's backpack at gunpoint inside the lobby of a Times Square hotel in April 2018. In another episode that month, a member of Tekashi's entourage fired a gun inside the Barclays Center during a confrontation with the crew of a rival rapper, Casanova.

In a dramatic moment, a woman shot in the foot as a result of a Nine Trey feud in Brooklyn last year confronted Tekashi.

“He was the mastermind,” the woman, identified only by her initials L.L. said. “Everyday when I look at myself I think of Mr. Hernandez. I want him to know he hurt me. I forgive him, but I will never forget.”

Tekashi apologized.

“Whatever medical bills you need I'm willing to pay for,” he said.

The pressure of constant hip-hop beefs, fights over money and Tekashi's supposed lack of gang bona fides eventually made the Nine Trey crew split into rival factions. Ellison kidnapped and robbed Tekashi at gunpoint, taking his jewelry worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, including a custom-made My Little Pony chain with some of the rapper's rainbow hair.

That set the stage for Tekashi's conversion from gangster to extortion victim and cooperating witness.

“I am not perfect. I made a lot of bad choices in life,” Tekashi said.

“I was too busy making the negative image in the 69 persona.”

His bombshell testimony at the trial featured allegations that rap stars Jim Jones and Cardi B are gang members.

Prosecutors said Tekashi's cooperation, which began almost immediately after the gang bust in November 2018, was “incredibly significant and extremely useful.” His testimony was critical in the guilty verdicts against Mack and Ellison. Other gang members pleaded guilty once they learned the rapper had flipped. Eleven Nine Trey members have been convicted through the case. Even an NYPD sergeant pleaded guilty to running heroin for the gang.

The government had to take extra security measures to protect Tekashi. He will have to be mindful of danger for the rest of his life.

“The fact that you are unusually recognizable does not help matters,” Engelmayer said, alluding to the tattoos on the rapper's face.

In a letter to the judge ahead of sentencing, Tekashi wrote that he still considered himself a public figure and artist. The rapper recently signed a “lucrative record deal,” setting the stage for music once he's released, Engelmayer said.

“There's no such thing as bad publicity,” Engelmayer said.

“You have millions of reasons, literally, to not go back to prison.”