By Tai Saint Louis
Bronx rapper Remy Ma was convicted on four charges of assault and today (Mar 27) by a Manhattan Supreme Court grand jury. The rapper faces five to 25 years in jail.
The decision just two days after attorneys for both the defense and prosecution delivered their closing statements.
Remy Ma was convicted of two counts of first-degree assault, attempted coercion, and criminal possession of a weapon.
She was found not guilty of gang assault and witness tampering.
On trial since March 10, the former Terror Squad artist born Remy Smith stood accused of shooting her childhood friend Makeda Barnes-Joseph in a July 2007 dispute over $3000.
Barnes-Joseph spent three weeks in the hospital following the incident, which left her with two gunshot wounds to the abdomen.
The victim underwent three separate surgeries to repair the damage.
During his closing statement on Monday (Mar 24), Remy’s attorney Ivan Fisher maintained that the shooting was accidental, an argument he says was supported by Barnes-Joseph’s March 14 testimony.
Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Michael McIntosh, on the other hand, argued that the shooting was the direct result of Smith’s deliberate decision to take “an illegal .45-caliber automatic and [load] it with hollow-point bullets and go into Ms. Joseph’s car.”
He added that her decision to flee the scene of the crime was further proof of the rapper’s guilt.
Remy Ma faces up to 25 years in prison.
No word yet as to whether Barnes-Joseph will refile a $20 million civil suit against Remy Ma in connection with the shooting.