Casanova wrote an emotional letter to Judge Philip Halpern this week before his June 27 sentencing date.
In the letter, the rapper admits to feeling suicidal.
“I am telling you and anyone that will listen that I wanted out before I was arrested and I am out. I learned through my music career that people will listen and that I don’t need to associate myself with a gang to succeed. I don’t need to associate with a gang even if I don’t succeed,” he wrote in the letter obtained by AllHipHop.
“While I have been in here I lost my father to cancer. While I put on that strong facade, all I wanted to do was end it. Surviving on Rikers Island and upstate correctional facilities were not easy with racial and gang tension and violence at its height,” he continued.
Casanova added: “I thought I needed to stay in the life in name because it was a way to promote my career. I don’t care what the government tells you. I am telling you the truth. I was not involved in the daily activities of this gang. I wasn’t anyone’s boss. What I was and I regret this was a person that they could use to promote themselves in a world I swear to you I was trying to leave. I clearly did not do a good enough job of this as I did find myself in one bad situation after another.”
Casanova and Jarrett “Jayecee” Crisler got into an altercation with a member of the Crips outside of the King of Diamonds on October 24. The Crip took offense to the gang signs Casanova was flashing. Crisler, an Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation member, then allegedly shot the gang member and his associate.
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