Rapper Daniel Hernandez, known professionally as Tekashi 6ix9ine, will complete his prison sentence on August 2. Lance Lazzaro, Hernandez’s attorney, confirmed the date.
The 23-year-old rapper was arrested in Nov. 2018 for his involvement with the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods. In January the rapper made a plea deal — in which he admitted that he’d hired someone to shoot rival rapper Chief Keef, and to selling a kilo of heroin in 2017 — that saw him cooperating with federal law-enforcement officers; the agreement was initially sealed to give prosecutors time to charge and arrest members of the Nine Trey gang.
His controversial cooperation with the authorities led to him offering testimony against the gang, putting several affiliates of the faction in prison. Two defendants in the case, Kintea “Kooda B” McKenzie and Hernandez’s kidnapper Anthony “Harv” Ellison, have yet to be sentenced.
In total, Hernandez pleaded guilty to nine federal felonies including racketeering conspiracy, firearms charges, narcotics trafficking, and violent crimes in aid of racketeering.
At the time, Hernandez said: “I now know that I am remorseful for what happened because I was blessed with the gift of an opportunity that most people dream of but I squandered it by getting involved with the wrong people and misrepresenting myself when I should have been true to myself and my fans. … I’m sorry to the victims who were affected by my actions, to my fans who look up to me and were misled, to my family who depends on me and to this courtroom for this mess that I contributed to.”
In Dec. 2019, Hernandez was sentenced to 24 months, after having served 13 months awaiting sentencing. The August release date puts Hernandez’s sentence completion three months ahead of the originally decreed date. “The reason why he’s getting released early is because he’s the perfect model prisoner,” Dawn Florio, another member of Hernandez’s legal team, said.
Hernandez was denied a request to serve the remainder of his sentence in alternative housing. The rapper reportedly plans to move away from New York once his sentence is complete out of concern for his own safety.