Rapper Casanova Appeals 15-Year Prison Sentence
The 15-year prison term Casanova was given in late June has been officially appealed by his legal team.
According to HotNewHipHop, Casanova’s attorney James Kousouros suggested that the Brooklyn rapper’s sentence should be reduced because the man, real name Caswell Senior, had renounced his official affiliation with the Gorilla Stone Nation gang.
“The fact is that Mr Senior stayed in this gang as it furthered his rap career,” Casanova’s lawyers said. “As he gained moderate success and then a recording contract with Roc Nation, he increasingly separated himself from the gang’s activities despite remaining a member.”
On June 27, Casanova was sentenced to 188 months in prison, or 15 years, by U.S. District Judge Philip M. Halpern. A gunshot in Florida on July 5, 2020, a robbery in New York City on August 5, 2018, and a conspiracy to traffic more than 100 kg of marijuana are among the offences he is charged with.
“Caswell Senior is not just a notorious recording artist, but he is also a high-profile leader of a vicious street gang and a magnet for gang violence,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a press release at the time. “At a crowded Miami house party, Senior personally fired a gun that seriously injured and could have killed a victim, inciting a shootout.”
He continued: “Further, Senior’s stature in the community was central to Gorilla Stone’s successful recruitment and nationwide expansion. Today’s sentencing — along with the other significant sentences that have been imposed in this case — shows once again that gang life is not worth it and will lead to many years in prison.”
Casanova was the 12th defendant in the Gorilla Stone case to have been sentenced. Five more defendants have pled guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
After he received the sentence he took to Twitter and issued a short message, saying, “Everything to the chin, Nothing to the heart. I GET IT NOW. I hope that don’t go over ya heads.”
Casanova’s real name is Caswell Senior. He is an American rapper. In 2016, Casanova made his first original song “Don’t Run”. He is signed to Roc Nation. In 2020, he was indicted on RICO charges alongside 17 others due to various criminal activities in which his Bloods gang “Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation,” allegedly participated.
Caswell Senior was raised in Brooklyn, New York, where he was born. He is of Panamanian and Jamaican ancestry. At the age of 18, he was detained on Rikers Island, where he grew close to his cellmate, rapper ASAP Rocky, who was eventually identified.
