Rapper T.I. sentenced to year on weapons charges
March 27, 2009, 10:28 AM EST
ATLANTA (AP) -- A judge sentenced rapper T.I. to one year and a day behind bars on federal weapons charges on Friday.

The 28-year-old rapper, whose real name is Clifford Harris, apologized at the hearing.

"Today I would like to say thank you to some, and apologize to all," the rapper told U.S. District Judge Charles Pannell Jr. at sentencing.

Harris pleaded guilty last March after he was arrested in 2007, attempting to buy unregistered machine guns and silencers. The arrest on Oct. 13 of that year occurred blocks from where he was to headline the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta hours later.

He will have between 30 and 60 days to report to prison. Harris already has completed about 1,000 hours of community service and has warned youths about the pitfalls of guns, drugs, violence. He will need to complete 470 additional hours.


He had faced a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count, until he cut a deal and pleaded guilty last March to the federal weapons charge and was sentenced to one year and a day in prison.

Harris initially pleaded not guilty and was released on a $3 million bond before being placed under house arrest.

Ed Garland, one of his attorneys, said they are not sure where he will serve his sentence.

Harris agreed to community service to avoid a lengthy sentence. He has already made 262 public appearances as part of that deal.

Much of that work has been done with children. He was part of a major voting campaign and has an MTV reality show, "Road to Redemption," to scare teens straight.

Harris is one of the co-chief executives of Grand Hustle Records and one of Atlantic Records' most successful artists. His sixth album, "Paper Trail," has sold nearly two million copies. It also charted two smash No. 1 songs, and a third with Justin Timberlake is near the top of the charts.

T.I. said fear was the reason he tried to buy the guns. His best friend, Philant Johnson, was killed following a post-performance party in Cincinnati in 2006. A man was found guilty last year in the murder case.

I guess its better than gettin what he was looking at, at the begining of all this which was 30 years...

here is a young man who had it made and blew it all. can't take the hood out of a hoodlum... and you can't make a hoe a house wife. so the saying goes. another sad story.

My dawg going away.. Ti gon stay strong.

-[pRo.AFr0^]- wrote:here is a young man who had it made and blew it all. can't take the hood out of a hoodlum... and you can't make a hoe a house wife. so the saying goes. another sad story.

Ya know, I gotta check myself. Stand Strong Dog. He gonna get his and he's cool with his paying the price for his mistakes...I've been reading up on T.I's community service after the fact and I gotta brush my shoulder off. for life.

he only got 1 year and the judge even gave him much respect for the show "road to redemption" which is a good ass show but it aint like he got 30 years like he was suppose to get. shit he still got artist's workin on mixtapes still making him bread while he in prison besides if yo nigga gets killed on the 1 day u didnt bring a gun to yo concert shit i woulda bought them dam mac and ak's too but not from an atf agent he was dumb 4 dat

big upps to T.I.