Celebrity

YoungBoy Never Broke Again Enters Guilty Plea

The rapper, a convicted felon, was arrested in 2020 after he brandished a handgun while shooting a music video in Baton Rouge.
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YoungBoy Never Broke Again will plead guilty to a federal weapons charge more than four years after his arrest in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In court documents filed on Aug. 14, per XXXL Mag and The Guardian, the rapper, real name Kentrell DeSean Gaulden, waived his right to a trial in Baton Rouge and agreed to plead guilty once the case is transferred from Louisiana to Utah, where he faces unrelated charges in Cache County and Weber County accusing him of running a prescription drug fraud ring.

“I wish to plead guilty to the offense charged, to consent to the disposition of the case in the District of Utah in which I am present, and to waive trial in the above-captioned District,” a statement signed by the rapper read.

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The move comes after YoungBoy’s lawyer Drew Findling submitted the required legal documents to move the case. However, it’s unclear whether the guilty plea is the result of an agreement with prosecutors or if the rapper will be handed a more lenient sentence. Per reports, US district judge Shelly Dick officially closed the Louisiana case and moved jurisdiction to the federal court in Salt Lake City. It’s unclear when Young Boy will officially enter his guilty plea.

The rapper, who also goes by the stage name NBA YoungBoy, was arrested in September of 2020 after he and several others brandished firearms while shooting a music video in Baton Rouge. A total of 15 people were arrested, and more than a dozen guns were seized from the video set. Police said that YoungBoy, a convicted felon who was not allowed to have a gun, was in possession of a 9 mm handgun. He was indicted in U.S. District Court for possession of firearms by a convicted felon. An additional charge of possession of a firearm not registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record was later dismissed. He was initially set to go to trial in July, but a federal judge paused the case in March to await a Supreme Court ruling on a closely-watched Second Amendment battle, Billboard reported at the time.

While YoungBoy’s federal gun case will soon be resolved with his guilty plea, he faced more than 60 felony counts tied to a “large scale prescription fraud ring” in Utah, where he had been living on house arrest while awaiting his Louisiana trial. In April, he was arrested on charges including procuring or attempting to procure drug prescription, identity theft, forgery, possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person, pattern of unlawful activity and possession of other controlled substances. Authorities claim the rapper posed as a medical professional and contacted pharmacies to request prescriptions. He has been held without bond at the Weber County jail awaiting trial in the case since May.