2 rappers arraigned on separate gun charges
Ja Rule, Lil Wayne could each face four years in prison
![]() Matt Sayles / AP file Rapper Ja Rule, whose real name is Jeff Atkins, was in a car pulled over by New York police for speeding. A gun was found. |
Celebrity video |
Big changes in store for Oprah? Nov. 8: Is the queen of daytime television preparing to give up her popular talk show to focus on her own cable network? NBC’s Kevin Tibbles reports, then Rolling Stone contributor Toure and CNBC’s Carmen Wong Ulrich join Jenna Wolfe to discuss the financial and cultural impact of a potential move. |
Slideshow |
Best and worst celebrity fashions of 2009 From glamorous gowns to stylish suits to complete fashion failures, a look at the year so far. more photos |
NEW YORK - Top-selling rappers Ja Rule and Lil Wayne were arraigned on felony gun charges Monday following their separate arrests after a hip-hop concert at which both had performed.
A judge set high bails and bonds for the rappers and two other men, but the defendants were expected to be freed immediately, their bonds secured by Ja Rule’s $3.5 million house in New Jersey, bail bondsman Ira Judelson said.
Ja Rule, of Saddle Brook, N.J., and two men with him were stopped for speeding around 10:30 p.m. Sunday, and a police computer check of their 2004 Maybach luxury car revealed it had no insurance and a suspended registration, prosecutors said.
When police stopped the car, which costs about $250,000 to $400,000, they “detected a strong odor of marijuana,” prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon told the court. A loaded .40-caliber semiautomatic gun was recovered from the rear driver’s-side door, she said.
Lil Wayne, who is from New Orleans but lives in Miami, was arrested around 11:30 p.m. while dressing in a tour bus near the Beacon Theater, where the rappers had performed, Illuzzi-Orbon said. Approaching police officers smelled marijuana, and as they got closer Lil Wayne, 24, tossed aside a bag that contained a loaded .40-caliber handgun, she said.
Police believed that another person, so far uncharged, had stuffed 7 pounds of marijuana down the bus’ toilet as officers approached, prosecutors said.
All the defendants were charged with second-degree illegal gun possession, which is punishable by up to four years in prison upon conviction.
|
The judge set bond at $150,000 for Ja Rule, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, and at $70,000 for Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Carter. He set bond at $20,000 for Mohamed Gamal, Ja Rule’s driver and limo service owner, and at $150,000 for Dennis Cherry, Ja Rule’s road manager.
Ja Rule, 31, rose to fame in the mid-1990s after appearing on a hit song with Jay-Z and later went on to record platinum-selling solo albums.
Lil Wayne’s albums include “Tha Block Is Hot,” “Lights Out,” “Tha Carter” and “Tha Carter II.”
- Discuss Story On Newsvine
-
Rate Story:
View popularLowHigh - Instant Message
MORE FROM CELEBRITIES |
| Add Celebrities headlines to your news reader: |
Sponsored links
Resource guide




