Sean Kingston has been sentenced following his conviction earlier this year on fraud charges.
Friday, the “Beautiful Girls” singer was given 3.5 years in prison, per NBC. Previously, Kingston’s mother, Janice Turner, was sentenced to five years. Turner, like her son, was found guilty by a federal jury of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in April. At the time, both Kingston and Turner were facing up to 20 years on each count.
Prosecutors say that over the course of roughly a year, starting in April 2023, Kingston, born Kisean Anderson, amassed more than $1 million of products from various luxury vendors through the use of fake wire receipts. In the days leading up to Kingston’s arrest, however, his legal team argued “most of the victims were paid back,” a fact they say supported their push for a home confinement-focused sentence.
As detailed in court docs viewed by Complex, Kingston’s lawyers pointed to multiple past cases to underscore their arguments, noting that not only could determent from future offenses be accomplished “by a reasonable term of home detention,” but that house arrest could serve as a “substantial punishment” for their client’s crimes on its own.
Further bolstering the lawyers’ argument were several letters to the judge, including from Kingston’s sister and a person experiencing homelessness who said the singer had provided food and clothing.
For now, Kingston has not publicly addressed these developments on social media or elsewhere. The Yung Q-featuring “Good Go Bad,” the latest release, arrived on streaming services back in July.
This story is being updated.
