Memphis rapper Pooh Shiesty is pleading guilty to a single criminal charge related to a 2020 shooting at a Florida hotel, as part of a plea agreement that will see federal prosecutors recommend an eight-year prison sentence.
According to a copy of the deal filed Tuesday (Jan. 4) in Miami federal court, Shiesty copped to one charge of conspiracy to possess a firearm in furtherance of violent and drug-trafficking crimes. In return, prosecutors will drop three other counts, including a more serious charge that Shiesty fired the weapon himself.
Under the terms of the deal, prosecutors will seek only 97 months in prison for Shiesty, whose real name is Lontrell Williams. If convicted of all four counts, the rapper would have faced a far longer sentence; by itself, a federal charge of firing a gun in furtherance of a crime of violence carries a minimum 10-year sentence.
The charges against Williams stem from an October 2020 shooting at the Landon Hotel in Bay Harbor Islands, Fla. According to prosecutors, Williams and two others drove to the hotel to buy marijuana and a pair of high-end sneakers but eventually ended up shooting the sellers they were meeting. Both victims survived.
Williams was indicted in June on four counts related to the shooting. In addition to the charges of conspiracy to possess a firearm and discharging a firearm, he was also hit with two additional counts of robbery in violation of the federal Hobbs Act. The case had been scheduled for trial in October, when Williams notified the court that he wanted to reach a plea agreement.
Importantly, Tuesday’s deal is not binding on the federal judge who will eventually sentence Williams. Prosecutors are merely recommending the 97-month sentence, and the judge could still hand down a harsher sentence. But judges typically give great weight to such recommendations by prosecutors.
A date for sentencing has not yet been set. An attorney for Williams did not immediately return a request for comment. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida also did not respond to a request for comment.
The incident at the Landon Hotel isn’t the only recent shooting linked to Williams. According to the Miami Herald, he was arrested in June for allegedly shooting a security guard in the leg at a local strip club during Memorial Day weekend.
Federal prosecutors have said those charges are being handled by state authorities, and the status of that separate case is unknown. But as part of Tuesday’s plea agreement, Williams filed a document in which he admitted that he had “assaulted a victim with firearm at the King of Diamonds Gentleman’s Club” on May 30.
