Safaree Samuels has some serious cause for celebration this weekend.
Four years after he was maliciously robbed of his jewelry in the parking lot of his luxury apartment complex in New Jersey, the man who set the rapper up – his childhood friend, Shawn Harewood – has been handed a hefty prison sentence to help reprimand him.
Back in July, a jury convicted the mastermind on three counts of robbery, eluding, and resisting arrest. It's worth noting that Harewood was found not guilty of robbing Safaree's friend, conspiracy to commit robbery, and weapons charges, but the prosecution did determine that he set things up.
Yesterday (November 3), Judge Gary Wilcox sentenced Harewood to 18 years in prison for his role in stealing $180K worth of jewelry from Safaree, with the years running consecutively instead of concurrently, as AllHipHop notes.
"We are very pleased with the outcome and thankful that justice was served for Safaree Samuels," Bergen County Assistant Prosecutors Joe Torrie and Meg Kilzy said in a statement.
Harewood apologized to "all involved" before he was sentenced, and stated that the robbery was a part of a series of "bad decisions" that he's "not proud of."
"These moments do not define me, and they’re not reflective of me," he told the courtroom earlier this week.
Despite Harewood's lawyer's argument that his years in prison would cause his family hardship, the prosecution was adamant that he should've thought about that before committing his crime.
"His daughter is essentially an adult. She was 13 at the time of his arrest in 2018," Kilzy noted.
Do you think 18 years is a fair sentence for Shawn Harewood's crimes against Safaree Samuels? Sound off in the comments below, and tap back in with HNHH later for more hip-hop news updates.
[Via]