A judge has handed rapper DMX one-year in prison for tax evasion.
The rapper, real name Earl Simmons, pleaded guilty to tax evasion charges at a court in Manhattan. Although Simmons received 12 months in jail, the sentence can carry a maximum of five years in prison. After his sentence, he will have three years supervised release.
During his trial, his lawyer reportedly showed his video for ‘Slippin”. His lawyer requested to do so, arguing that his client might be too emotional during the trial to speak and so hearing his music might help the judge “understand [DMX] genuinely in his voice”. Speaking about DMX, his lawyer said, “It is raw Earl. We are not here or desirous of moulding him into what some may want to see; Earl is uniquely him and that is both his beauty of mind and his genius.”
Simmons initially pled not guilty to 14 charges of tax fraud in July 2017 and paid $500,000 to be released on bail. However, in a deal with authorities, he pled guilty to one count of tax evasion. If a deal had not been made he could have been facing up to 44 years in prison.
