Rap star Lil Wayne’s sentencing in a New York City gun case was postponed today (Tues., Feb. 9), because he needs to finish a string of recent dental surgeries before he goes to jail.
Lil Wayne is scheduled to spend as much as a year in jail under a plea deal, though good behavior could shave that to as little as eight months.
Sentencing now is set for March 2. Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon said it wouldn’t be put off any further.
He sat silent at a brief court session Tuesday afternoon. He left in a black SUV, flanked by fellow rapper Birdman and others.
Defense lawyer Stacey Richman said Lil Wayne was headed home to Miami for dental work Friday.
“It is a medical situation that, like (it would for) any of us, has to be addressed,” she said outside court. She said the rapper had planned to take care of it before Tuesday, but his dentist had been out of the country doing charitable work.
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon didn’t fight the rapper’s request to push back his sentencing, saying she had spoken to the dentist.
Lil Wayne, 27, pleaded guilty in October to a charge of attempted criminal possession of a weapon, admitting he illegally had a loaded .40-caliber semiautomatic gun on his tour bus in July 2007. Police found the weapon when they stopped the bus after a Manhattan concert.
Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.
