Jussie Smollett Sentenced To 150 Days In Jail Three Months After Actor Found Guilty Of Lying To Police In Hate Crime Hoax
Jussie Smollett was sentenced to 30 months' probation with the first 150 days to be spent in Cook County Jail.
The sentencing was finally revealed three months after the actor was found guilty in December of lying to police in connection to a hate crime that was ultimately determined to be a hoax.
Smollett reportedly stood up after sentencing and stated over and over, "I am NOT suicidal ... I am innocent ... if anything happens to me when I go in there I did not do it to myself."
The 39-year-old disgraced actor appeared at Chicago’s Cook County Courthouse on Thursday in anticipation of his sentencing after he was found guilty on five counts of felony disorderly conduct for lying to police about, what he claimed at the time, was a racist and homophobic hate crime against him by two brothers in Chicago on January 29, 2019.
Smollett was also charged with a sixth count of felony disorderly conduct for lying to a detective in the weeks following the “attack,” but the actor was ultimately acquitted on the sixth count.
Prior to Judge James Linn’s sentencing of the convicted actor on Thursday, Smollett was facing up to three years in prison for the five counts of lying to police. Although Smollett was potentially facing three years behind bars, legal experts reported at the time that they thought it was highly unlikely he would see time in prison due to his previously clean criminal record and the fact that the charges against him were of non-violent nature.
As RadarOnline.com reported, the whole chronicle of Smollett’s hate crime hoax started when he claimed he was attacked by two masked men wearing MAGA hats who shouted both homophobic and racist slurs at him near his residence in Chicago. When the Chicago police showed up at his home, Smollett also reportedly had a noose around his neck.
But when the former Empire actor’s trial started in November, his story quickly started falling apart, and although he adamantly denied he lied to police regarding the hate crime, the jury ultimately had enough evidence to determine he lied to authorities over what truly transpired on that January 2019 night.
"Mr. Smollett, when on that witness stand, took an oath he was going to tell the truth, and he made many, many false statements to you. He lied under oath to you as jurors," prosecutor Dan Webb said during closing arguments.