42 Dugg could face up to five years in prison after trying to avoid a much lighter sentence. According to The Detroit News (via HipHopDX), the Detroit rapper appeared in court this week, pleading guilty to failing to report to prison camp in West Virginia for illegally possessing a firearm. What would have been a six-month sentence could now balloon up to as much as five years if U.S. District Judge William Ray II disregards Atlanta prosecutors’ recommendation for the original six-month sentence.
In addition, Dugg could have to pay up to $250,000 in fines and will have to attend a 30-day inpatient drug treatment program after leaving prison, as well as 30 days of outpatient treatment. Dugg has been in prison in Atlanta for nearly a year after being arrested in May 2022 at the Detroit airport, fresh off of a flight from Memphis. The weapons charge stemmed from his original conviction in 2010 for carjacking and felony firearms possession. After being released in 2017, he embarked on a flourishing rap career, signing with Yo Gotti’s label CMG and dropping hit records like “We Paid” and “U-Digg.”
Unfortunately, in 2019, he was seen hanging out at an Atlanta shooting range, loading and firing guns — which is illegal for a convicted felon. He was arrested in March 2020 and sentenced in November 2021 to three years of probation and a $90,000 fine. However, he violated the terms of his probation multiple times — testing positive for opiates and getting arrested in Las Vegas for obstructing law enforcement — and was sentenced to six months in Virginia. He failed to report in April 2022, and avoided police for a month.
A May report said that Dugg filed paperwork in April claiming the rapper is a sovereign citizen who is exempt from federal laws but his lawyers insisted it was all a misunderstanding; the rapper was under the mistaken impression he would not have to report while appealing his earlier conviction.
