QUICK TAKES - March 28, 2009
Rapper T.I. was sentenced in Atlanta Friday to one year and a day in prison after pleading guilty to federal weapons charges after he tried to buy a stash of machine guns and silencers to protect himself after his best friend was killed.
The 28-year-old rapper, whose real name is Clifford Harris, will also pay a $100,000 fine as part of his sentence. He was arrested in 2007 after trying to buy unregistered machine guns and silencers.
He pleaded guilty last March to the federal weapons charges but wasn’t sentenced until Friday as part of a deal to see if he would be successful in performing community service by speaking to youths about the pitfalls of drugs, violence and guns.
“Today, I would like to say thank you to some, and apologize to all,” the rapper told U.S. District Judge Charles Pannell Jr., who handed down the sentence.
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