Philadelphia rapper Leaf Ward has just received his prison sentence for various firearm charges that he pleaded guilty to, according to a report from AllHipHop. Earlier this week, the 27-year-old – under the authority of U.S. District Court Judge Joel H. Slomsky – received 46 months in prison, a $25,000 fine, and three years of supervised release. The charges that the Philly MC pleaded guilty to include various counts of unauthorized firearm possession, and the machine gun charge in particular proved to be a big point of contention. Also, his status as a convicted felon also negatively impacted the severity of his sentence and these charges.
This legal saga for Leaf Ward began back in August of 2023 at a Bahama Breeze restaurant near Pennsylvania’s King of Prussia Mall, where law enforcement claimed they saw him arrive in a vehicle that he stole. Authorities tasked with routine parking lot surveillance discovered that his plates indicated a stolen car out of Philadelphia, and they began the process of towing the vehicle. But when the rapper got out of Bahama Breeze with his girlfriend and saw what was going on, he rushed back in and tried to get rid of evidence against him.
Leaf Ward’s “Mob Music”
The evidence in question, according to court filings, was a loaded Glock .40 caliber pistol with an illegal “switch.” Witness claim they saw Leaf Ward throw a gun into a trash can in the restaurant’s kitchen. Nevertheless, law enforcement officers chased him through the Bahama Breeze restaurant and eventually arrested him behind the building. They also recovered the loaded gun from the trash can. For those unfamiliar with Ward, he has a couple of big hits like “They Forgot 3,” “Concrete,” and “Close Range” that garnered their fair share of buzz on streaming platforms.
“Despite two prior gun convictions, Ward continued to wield these weapons, boldly displaying them in his videos and carrying them on the street,” U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero reportedly stated regarding the Leaf Ward case. “This office will continue to work with the ATF and our state and local partners to get guns out of the hands of people not permitted to have them, to tamp down violent crime and make the public safer.”
