New York – a former rapper that once being named as a rising star Jay-Z was pleaded guilty and was sentenced Wednesday to eight years in prison for his part in a fatal stabbing of a man he said he didn’t want to harm.
Tru Life, real name Roberto Rosado, Jr. also known as Jay-Z and was once signed to Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records roster, didn’t speak as he was sentenced together with his older brother Marcus Rosado. Marcus Rosado pleaded guilty by admitting it was him who stabbed Christopher Guerrero to death and seriously injured another man in June 2009 at Manhattan. It was a fight that involves both brothers.
Marcus Rosado at age of 39 was pleaded guilty last month to manslaughter and got a ten year sentence while Tru Life, 34, also pleaded guilty to gang (–foul word(s) removed–)ault.
“Robert is extremely saddened by what happened. Mr. Guerrero did not deserve what happened to him,” stated by Alan Abramson the rapper’s lawyer. Furthermore, Marcus Rosado gives his condolences to Guererro’s family.
Jason Ramirez, the victim’s brother said the following sentencing, “Christopher, who was unarmed and defenseless, was attacked”. “We believe the system has failed us.”
Through the statement of their respective lawyers, the Rosados said that the 20-year old Guerrero was not their target and not intended to harm in a violence that followed an argument at a nightclub and sprawled into the lobby of an apartment.
Guerrero was stabbed in the abdomen that leads to his death and Jason Gray got a cut that sliced an artery after the Rosados chased them into the lobby, according to court documents.
And from on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Robert “Tru Life” made a name on mixtapes until he was known as Jay-Z the rapper. Tru Life won in a scene chronicle in a 2005 New York Times article about Jay-Z over the rap titan.
Jay-Z co-founded the label Roc-La Familia, a Latin-oriented arm of Roc-A-Fella Records which Tru Life was signed for a time and to be groomed artist.
However, Tru Life was also well known for feuding with other rappers, named duo Mobb Deep and Jim Jones the Harlem-based rapper.