Ja Rule Wraps One Prison Stint, Just Four Months To Go

Thursday (February 21) was a mix of good news, bad news for Ja Rule. On the one hand, he successfully completed his two-year New York State prison sentence for attempted criminal possession of a weapon.


On the other, the rapper born Jeffrey Atkins was transferred to another facility in the morning as he awaited assignment to a federal lock-up, where he will have to serve the final four months of his 28-month sentence on a tax evasion charge.

"He completed his state sentence, but the state and federal sentences were running concurrently and there is an overage on the federal one," lawyer Stacey Richman told. "He still owes time on the federal charge." While Richman's office requested that Rule's transfer be sorted out months ago, she said it was unclear as of Thursday afternoon where her client was headed next.

After serving his required 20 months on the state gun charge concurrently with his federal time (minus four months off for good time), Rule, 36, still owes the feds four months. At press time Richman said Rule had been transferred from the from the Mid-State Correctional Facility to the Oneida County Jail while awaiting word on where he will serve out his federal sentence.

"It could be in a halfway house or another federal facility or a camp," said Richman, who noted that Rule still has to pay back $1.1 million in taxes once he is released. "I wrote to them [federal authorities] and gave them a list of issues ... We tried to plan for this by filing paperwork months ago ... But this is not s surprise to anyone. Everyone was expecting this."

The New York stint came after Rule pleaded guilty in December 2010 to the gun charge in connection with an arrest in July 2007 in which the Manhattan District Attorney's office claimed police found a loaded semi-automatic .40-caliber Taurus handgun, with the serial number scratched off, hidden in the backseat of the MC's Maybach.

He also pleaded guilty in March 2011
 to failing to pay more than $3 million in taxes in New Jersey.

Richman had not yet spoken to the Queens MC, but said he'd reached out to his wife and team and they relayed the message that Rule is eager to get back to work and his family. "There's a lot of anticipation knowing that he's so close to the end of it ... and frustration. He knew he wasn't getting out today, but his spirits have been extraordinary throughout. A lot of people want to work with him."

After he completes his federal term Richman said Rule will be on three years of post-supervised release in New York state and one year of supervised release on the federal charge. "He just lives his life and just has to not do anything wrong," she said.