Name-Dropping Drake Helped City Girls Rapper J.T. Delay Prison Check-in
By TheBlast Staff on July 16, 2018 at 8:15 PM EDT
J.T. from the Miami rap girl group City Girls — who broke out after being featured on the new Drake song "In My Feelings" — was allowed to delay her prison check-in by name-dropping Drizzy to the judge.
According to court documents obtained by The Blast, J.T. – real name Jatavia Johnson – checked herself into a Florida prison on June 29 after being sentenced on charges relating to felony identity theft.
Prosecutors claimed that between September 2016 through April 2017, Johnson allegedly used three different people's credit cards and racked up more than $1,000 in charges. She was facing up to 10 years in prison, but cut a plea deal with prosecutors.
In January, the court sentenced Johnson to 24 months in prison with a scheduled date to surrender on June 25.
However, a week before she was set to check-into the big house, her lawyer filed a motion to delay because the City Girls were scheduled to make an appearance at the June 24 BET Awards.
!instagram-embed(https://www.instagram.com/p/BkbsKXfFgAD/)
They asked the judge to consider “the once in a lifetime opportunity that the Defendant had in front of her" and requested a later surrender date for J.T.
Johnson’s lawyer explained, “Since the sentencing, the Defendant and her two-girl music group has experienced a meteoric rise in stardom ... The Defendant now has over 3 million views on YouTube and they have over one million streams across various platforms. The Defendant is a star.”
The motion sought an additional 30 days for J.T. to surrender saying, “This is due to a recent cosign from Drake (other noticeable cosigns include Migos, DJ Khaled, Cardi B, Rick Ross and Trina). It will take three weeks to do the work that needs to be done and then the Defendant can surrender as her first album and its promotion will be done. She can do her time knowing that upon her release her group will be ready to start their second album and tour.”
The judge denied the 30 days but did give her until June 29, allowing her to appear at the BET Awards before checking into prison. Johnson’s expected release date is currently listed as March 21, 2020.
If J.T. decides to drop a #ShiggyChallenge behind bars, it could be the most epic version yet.
!youtube-embed(https://youtu.be/nO3-jUxsrlU)
