| Amid Coronavirus Tekashi #6ix9ine
Lawyer Cites Risk of Death In Private Jail
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Thread Scope
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- Vulture
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
March 24 – Daniel Hernandez
a/k/a Tekashi 6ix9ine was
sentenced to 24 months of
total imprisonment on December
18 in a proceeding live
tweeted by Inner City
Press before U.S. District
Court Judge Paul A.
Engelmayer.
Inner City
Press reported, other others picked
up with credit, that on
March 22 Hernandez / 69's
lawyer Lance Lazzaro asked
Judge Engelmayer to order his
client released citing his
asthma and shortness of
breath, Coronavirus and the case
in the MDC in Brooklyn
(although 69 is it seems in
the private contractor GEO
facility in Queens, the
adherence to BOP protocol and
inclusion in its COVID-19
statistics is not clear).
On March
24, after Assistant US
Attorney Michael Longyear
replied, Lazzaro wrote a
second time, that "It is
somewhat ironic and extremely
unfair that, given Mr.
Hernandez has provided
substantial assistance to the
government and the government
maintains a hold on Mr.
Hernandez as a cooperator, the
government has effectively
prevented him from being a BOP
prisoner and the government
now opposes Mr. Hernandez’s
release because he has not
made an administrative appeal
with BOP. Most inmates with
Mr. Hernandez’s 24-month
sentence would already be on
home confinement or a half-way
house. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 3621,
3624. Title 18, section
3624(c) of the United States
Code requires the Bureau of
Prisons to ensure that
prisoners serving a term of
imprisonment spend a portion
of the final months of that
term under conditions that
will afford the prisoner a
reasonable opportunity to
adjust to and prepare for
reentry into the community. As
a non-BOP prisoner, Mr.
Hernandez is incapable of
taking any administrative
action with BOP. Mr. Hernandez
has done everything that the
government has ever asked, and
in return, the government now
opposes Mr. Hernandez’s
request for home confinement,
in an attempt to protect his
health, based upon his
inability to perform an
administrative function which
the government itself has made
impossible. Therefore, given
Mr. Hernandez’s high risk of
death or serious complications
if he contracts COVID-19,
please issue an order
modifying his sentence to
allow him to begin home
confinement immediately. New
York Governor Andrew Cuomo has
stated recently that New York
City can expect a significant
surge and spike of coronavirus
cases within the next couple
of weeks. As stated today by
the Trump coronavirus task
force, this country has seen
52,000 COVID-19 cases to date,
with 685 deaths and 144 deaths
today alone. Additionally, 60
percent of all new COVID-19
cases are coming out of the
New York City metro
area." We'll have more
on this.
On March 9 Inner
City Press reported that the
US Bureau of Prison has listed
under "Daniel Hernandez,
White, 23, Not in BOP Custody"
a release date of August 2,
2020, here.
As a
cooperator, #6ix9ine has been
in the GEO private prison in
Queens. Meanwhile Inner City
Press' reporting of the
proceedings before SDNY Judge
Engelmayer has been demonetized
by Google for including from
the transcript the F-word and
N-word. These were said. More
on all this to follow.
On February
17 the US Attorney's Office
asked Judge Engelmayer to
sentence one of the two
defendants convicted at trial
with 69's testimony, Aljermiah
"Nuke" Mack, to at least
thirty years in prison.
On February
24, Inner City Press
live-tweeted the more than
three hour sentencing
proceeding, here.
Judge Engelmayer came out at a
sentencing guideline of 235 to
293 months. As well as reading
from apparently every letter
received, Judge Engelmayer
said that not accepting
responsibility, going to trial
despite extensive audio and
other evidence, militated
years higher than he would
otherwise have gone.
He compare
Mack to Jamel Jones, noting
that Jamel not Nuke was caught
on take threatening to
"super-violated" #6ix9ine but
also had less of a criminal
history. He cited Mack robbing
Roland Martin of a Range Rover
and a Rolex, brandishing a
gun. He focused on selling
fentanyl as heroin.
Judge
Engelmayer imposed a sentence
on Aljermiah Mack of 204
months or 17 years. The
government urged that it not
be on the East Coast but Judge
Engelmayer proposed near NYC,
pending language to be
submitted by defense attorney
Louis Fasulo overnight.
Anthony
"Harv" Elisson's sentencing
has been pushed back to April
1. Inner City Press will be
there.
On
February 12 another of 69's
initial co-defendants Fuguan
Lovick a/k/a Fu Banga entered
in shackles for sentencing by
Judge Engelmayer. Inner City
Press aimed to at least
partially live tweet, but it
was not possible: no phone use
in courtroom and for various
reasons not otherwise
possible. The government was
asking for a sentence of from
90 to 96 months in jail, 84 of
them for pleading guilty to
shooting a gun at the
Barclay's Center in downtown
Brooklyn. Lovick declined to
speak (he had written a
letter); his lawyer Jeffrey
Pittel asked for one day on
Count 6.
Judge Engelmayer noted that
while Lovick had a number of
run ins with the law since
1999, none in the past seven
years, and jobs in Home Depot
and construction. His father
made him sell heroin; he
witnessed a murder on the way
to school.
As to the
shot, Judge Engelmayer said
that Daniel Hernandez was to
give a performance and Lovick
shot a gun over the heads of a
rival rapper's entourage.
Judge
Engelmayer: "I should say that
many shots taken in the
Barclays Center miss" - then
he credited Lovick with
missing his gun shot on
purpose, but still said it was
dangerous. He imposed a
sentence of 85 months, then
three years of Supervised
Release, in Connecticut where
Lovick's son lives. He wished
Lovick, and two relatives in
the gallery, well. And Inner
City Press, prohibited from
live tweeting the thoughtful
sentencing, ran and wrote
this. We'll have more,
including on April 1.
Inner City Press
covered the trial
Hernandez testified at, and
the other sentencings
in the case and will continue
to. The case is US v.
Jones, 18-cr-834
(Engelmayer). More on Patreon
here.
***
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