Judge listens to DMX's song 'Slippin' ' while his lawyer recalls his 'nightmarish' childhood so that they can 'understand him genuinely' before the sentencing.
- Mar 29, 2018
AceShowbiz - DMX is sent back to prison for a tax fraud case. On Wednesday, March 28, a judge sentenced the rapper, whose real name is Earl Simmons, to 12 months behind bars after he previously pled guilty to one count of tax evasion.
Before the sentencing, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff accommodated DMX's request to listen to his 1998 autobiographical hit "Slippin' ". DMX's lawyer Murray Richman reportedly asked the judge to listen to his client's songs so they can "understand him genuinely" and hear the "raw Earl."
The 47-year-old star nodded his head slightly to the beat of his own song. According to the Associated Press, DMX sobbed when Richman recalled his "nightmarish" childhood while the music was playing.
The judge called DMX's fraud a "brazen and blatant" crime that could not go unpunished. Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Cooper additionally said that the "Get at Me Dog" rapper engaged in tax fraud for six years after having paid taxes previously. "He essentially went off the grid at a certain time," the prosecutor said.
When he got a chance to speak, DMX said, "I never went to the level of tax evasion where I'd sit down and plot ... like a criminal in a comic book." He admitted, though, that he "wasn't following the rules." DMX, who has been incarcerated since January after he failed to obey bail restrictions, said that before the judge ordered his imprisonment, "I was in a cloud. I wasn't thinking straight."
DMX's lawyer Richman wanted his client free so that he could support his 15 children and pay back nearly $2.3 million in taxes that are part of a restitution order. Richman also got choked up as he described physical and psychological abuse that DMX endured as a child. "I've never seen a more horrific background in my life," he said.
Another defense lawyer, Stacey Richman, called DMX "the American dream." She recalled the New York spitter's rise from ghetto music to becoming an influential figure whose song stopped a former Troy homeless woman from killing herself. The woman reportedly called the lawyers to inform them about it.
The judge said that in the court's view DMX "is a good man." He concluded, "In many ways, he's his own worst enemy."
The star's sentence also includes three years of supervised release. The sentence is much lighter than the maximum sentence of five years in prison that federal prosecutors sought.
