Nicki Minaj’s husband Kenneth Petty has reportedly struck a plea deal after failing to register as a sex offender in the state of California.
TMZ has reported that Petty has agreed to plead guilty to one count of failing to register in exchange for a lighter punishment.
Petty was found guilty of one count of attempted rape in the first degree in 1995 in New York. Both the victim and Petty were aged 16 years old at the time of the incident.
According to documents filed, the victim was walking to school when Petty walked up behind her, pressing an object to her back and instructed her to “keep walking.” He then allegedly forced her up some stairs before beginning to rape her at knifepoint. The victim struck Petty with a bottle to escape.
Petty move to California with Minaj in 2019, but never registered as a sex offender there. In 2020, he was charged for failing to register himself in the state.
Minaj jumped to her husband’s defense following his arrest. At the time, she wrote on social media, “He was 15, she was 16 … in a relationship. But go awf, internet, y’all can’t run my life. y’all can’t even run y’all own life.”
Petty’s guilty plea is expected to return him a sentence at the low end of the guidelines. The maximum punishment for not registering as a sex offender in the state of California is 10 years jail time, with a lifetime of supervised release.
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The documents obtained by TMZ state that the minimum penalty for Petty’s failure to register is a mandatory sentence of 5 years of supervised release.
Minaj and Petty welcomed a baby boy together in September 2020. Because of the ongoing legal case, Petty has a curfew and is not allowed out after specific hours. He had to get the court’s permission to be present for the birth, in case Minaj gave birth outside of his curfew.
For more on this topic, follow the Pop Observer.
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