Sean Kingston’s lawyers have asked a judge to allow the singer to serve his sentence at home instead of a prison cell.
In April, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Florida announced that Kingston and his mother, Janice Turner, had been convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Prosecutors said the two came up with a plan to fool several vendors into giving them $1 million worth of luxury cars, jewelry, and other electronics. Jurors took less than four hours to find Kingston and his mom guilty.
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On Wednesday, July 23, Judge David S. Leibowitz sentenced Turner to five years in prison and three months of probation during a federal court hearing in Miami.
Kingston’s scheduled sentencing is on August 15. Ahead of his sentencing, his lawyers have made their argument for house arrest, citing previous cases that they believe set a precedent for their request.
In Florida-filed court documents seen by Complex, the “Beautiful Girls” singer’s lawyers further argued that “in many instances, home confinement or house arrest is, in itself, a substantial punishment” for Kingston’s crimes.
Kingston’s mom Turner was taken into custody in May 2024 after a raid of a Southwest Ranches mansion rented by her son. A lawyer, Dennis Card, informed NBC 6 at the time that the raid had something to do with a case he filed against Kingston for purportedly failing to pay for goods acquired, including a 232-inch TV that Kingston was seen posing in front of in a photo.
The lawyer said, “He likes having bling, he likes showing off, he’s a showman. My client has a $150,000 television sound system that’s in there, there’s also about $1 million worth of watches that are in there, there’s a $80,000 custom bed that was ordered. This is an organized systematic fraud.”
“He’s got basically a script, he says that he works with Justin Bieber, and that he obviously puts on a big show here, this is a rental house, he doesn’t own it, and he lures people using his celebrity into having them release things without him paying for it and then he simply never pays,” the lawyer, who was representing the company suing Kingston, said.
Hours after Turner’s arrest, Kingston was also arrested while in the middle of performing one of his hits on stage, the Independent reported. The report said the singer was arrested “without incident” at the U.S. military training area of Fort Irwin, California.
His lawyers now argue that most of the singer’s victims were paid back, adding that “the restitution owed is minimal in comparison to the loss for which Mr. Anderson is being held responsible.”
Character letters have also been filed ahead of Kingston’s sentencing, including letters to the judge from the singer’s sister, fellow recording artist Iyaz, and a grocery store cashier in Fort Lauderdale who described Kingston as someone who is “always willing to lend a hand,” Complex reported.
