Rapper T.I. Headed Back To Prison For 11 Months After Violating His Probation for Weapons Charges
ATLANTA (CBS/AP) T.I. is headed back to prison, despite his pleas for mercy and desire to "get drugs out of [his] life," after a federal judge revoked the rapper's probation Friday and ordered him back to prison for 11 months following his arrest last month in California on suspicion of drug possession.
The Grammy Award-winning artist, whose real name is Clifford Harris Jr., was on probation after serving 10 months behind bars on federal weapons charges, last year.
"I think Mr. Harris had had about the limit of second chances," U.S. District Court Judge Charles Pannell Jr. said in court, according to a report by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
During the hearing, T.I. begged the judge not to send him back to prison, saying he needed to get help for drug addiction. He told the judge he "screwed up" and pleaded for mercy.
"I screwed up big time, and I'm sorry." Harris told the judge, the Journal-Constitution reported.
But Pannell wasn't swayed by the rapper's plea.
The judge had said T.I.'s sentence was an "experiment" he hoped to replicate if it worked. The rapper was allowed to stay out of prison while performing 1,000 hours of community service, mostly talking with schoolchildren about the dangers of gangs, drugs and violence.
"You certainly dumped a lot of smut on the whole experiment," Pannell told T.I.
The Atlanta native is one of the biggest names in hip-hop, with multiple platinum-selling albums and singles, production credits and roles in films like "ATL" and "American Gangster."
Last week, Atlanta police said T.I. helped them talked a suicidal man down from a skyscraper. The man agreed to come down from the 22-story building in exchange for a few minutes with the rapper, authorities said.
T.I. rejected suggestions that his intervention was a stunt to gain advance favor with the court.