Tommy Lee Sparta was sentenced to 3 years in prison on firearm charges.
The dancehall artiste pleaded guilty on Wednesday when he appeared in court for his ongoing case of illegal possession of firearm and was sentenced right after to three years imprisonment for possession of firearm and two years in jail for illegal possession of ammunition. The sentences are to run concurrently, and he’ll serve the greater sentence of three years.
In court, Tommy Lee Sparta was represented by Queen’s Counsel Tom Tavares Finson and Donahue Martin.
The Sparta artiste was arrested in December of 2020 along Holborn Road, New Kingston after the firearm was found on his person. Police reports say the artiste, whose real name is Leroy Russell, had a 9mm Glock pistol with an extended magazine containing 18 rounds of ammunition tucked into his waistband.
Before being arrested, the deejay was at the center of controversy as he was held for weeks under the state of emergency (SOE) in St James in early 2020. His attorney at the time, Ernest Smith, had said the deejay was a victim of a police vendetta and that spite from the police had cost the artiste to lose over $100 million in performance revenue as they shut his events down early or pressured him from performing.
The dancehall artiste has had various run-ins with the law, including a charge for lottery scamming-related offenses, which he was four years later freed on, and being named as a person involved in the spike in gang violence in Montego Bay that led to deadly shootings.
