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Sean Kingston has been sentenced to more than three years in prison after he and his mother were convicted of wire fraud charges.
During his sentencing hearing at a Broward County courtroom on Friday, August 15, a judge ruled that the "Beautiful Girls" artist will serve three and a half years behind bars. In addition, Kingston, born Kisean Anderson, must also complete three years of supervised release. According to WPLG Local 10, federal prosecutors recommended five years to match his mother Janice Turner's sentence. However, the judge felt that wouldn't be fair since the artist "did not take the stand and lie 10 feet from me like his mother did."
“Three and a half years is much lower than the guidelines so we are happy about that part," Kingston’s Defense Attorney Robert Rosenblatt said. I think the judge saw through the fact that this is not a typical fraud you see in other cases and also most of the people were paid back. I think the fact that Sean has done so much stuff for other people and the fact that he is a good person and helped others I think that also helped with the sentence. I think it had to do with acceptance of responsibility and the fact that Sean didn’t take the stand to testify. He did accept responsibility.”
Federal prosecutors alleged Anderson and Turner executed a years-long scheme to obtain luxury items, including cars, jewelry, entertainment systems, and more, without paying for them. They were arrested last May after a SWAT team conducted a raid on the artist's home in Southwest Ranches. Turner was taken into custody on the spot, while Anderson was apprehended by police in Fort Irwin, an Army training base in California's Mojave Desert, right after he performed there.
Both Anderson and Turner pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud. By the end of their trial in March, a jury took just three hours to convict the mother-son duo on all charges. Turner was sentenced in July. In addition to his sentence, Kingston must also pay restitution.
Anderson was remanded into custody immediately after he was sentenced. He was taken to the Federal Detention Center in Miami to begin his sentence. While in prison, half of Anderson's salary must go toward his restitution and 10% of his monthly gross earnings will be applied to repayment once he gets out.