The observer only Jamaican newspaper correspondent covering the court here on Gibbons court, where Benton, whose real name is Mark Myrie, nervously awaiting sentencing on charges of conspiring to have to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine.
Songs sound prophetic – four Grammy nominee wrote them before he was arrested on federal charges of cocaine in December last year. Testing is scheduled to begin Monday in Tampa – a week before the U.S. release of the album. He faces a possible life sentence if convicted.
“I was accused, wrongly convicted. Jah knows I’m not guilty,” he sings in his gravelly voice, invoking God’s Rastafarians. “I was a stand out favorite friends … have sold me.”
Benton recorded 10 songs in the album last year in Kingston, Jamaica, before his arrest at his Miami-area home on charges of conspiracy to possess with a view to the distribution of more than five kilograms of cocaine. Grand jury indictment also charged him with carrying firearms during drug trafficking crimes.
He worked on the album with producers and engineers over the phone from Tampa-area prisons, where 37-year-old held without bail since the beginning of the year.
According to the indictment, Benton and the associated negotiations with the informant to buy cocaine. Along with the third, they allegedly met with undercover police in Sarasota in early December to buy drugs. The informant told drug agents that he also saw the singer verification of cocaine.
Ian Thomas, manager of the Benton described as an old friend of the singer, which surfaced shortly before his arrest, pleaded guilty on Wednesday of conspiracy to possess with a view to distribution of five or more kilograms of cocaine. He now faces up to life in prison.
The third, James Mack, signed an affidavit that he never met Benton before his arrest, and that the singer did not know about the money or guns, which were in the car during drug Mack deal. Mack plans to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge of drug and weapons charge, according to the plea agreement filed Wednesday. He also faces up to life imprisonment on each charge.
Both of them agreed to testify for the prosecution as part of their plea agreement. Benton’s attorney requested the Mac as a witness, and, according to court documents.
Benton’s team will attempt to prove the singer, who rose from the slums of Kingston to the huge success in 1990, became a victim of provocation. Benton attorney, David Marcus told the court that the confidential informant was paid 3.3 million dollars to work with law enforcement authorities for several years, including more than $ 35.000 in the case of Benton. Informant met Banton, whose real name is Mark Myrie, in first class on flights from Spain to Miami at the end of his European tour Benton last summer.
Benton’s team argues that he was an informant, who had raised the idea of cocaine dealing with Benton.
“Paying the convicted drug dealer of millions of dollars to create innocent productive member of society is not so,” Marcus said in an e-mail. Star prosecution laughing at us all – he does not pay taxes, he stopped paying the mortgage on his million dollar house, he does not pay his credit cards, and he gets to stay in this country, even though he committed crimes here, as an illegal immigrant. We hope , the jury will see through his charade. ”
Banton’s arrest derailed plans to tour Japan after the tumultuous U.S. tour for his Grammy 2009 album, “Rasta Got Soul”. Trade shows in several cities were canceled due to protests over the violence, homophobic lyrics from early in his career as a brash singer Benton dance.
His manager, Tracii McGregor, dismissed the controversy, saying these words were written in response to the rape of a boy in Jamaica, is no longer present then the more traditional reggae music Benton and do not reflect his Rastafarian beliefs.
In 2003, marijuana is the case in Jamaica have led to a fine for Benton. The following year he was acquitted on charges of Jamaica, that he participated in the beating of six gay men.
He refers to these problems – and the current case, although he did not refer to it specifically – in the booklet to the “Before Dawn”. It includes a note written in June from the Pinellas County jail urging fans to stand firmly by our troubles “and” taste of life. ”
“Never before, I can attest to the trauma experienced by others,” Bunton says, “but my current situation results in full perspective of what it really means slavery.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment