Former New York State
Sen. Guy Velella, convicted of bribery charges, is reportedly sharing the same
prison unit at Rikers Island as former Bad Boy rapper Shyne, who is incarcerated
for his role in a club shooting.
Upon returning
to jail Monday (Dec. 27) to finish a one-year sentence for conspiring to funnel
public contracts to bribe-payers last spring, Velella discovered that Shyne,
who is provisionally stationed on Riker’s Island by court order, resided in
the same North Infirmary Command unit.
Velella’s co-defendants,
Manuel Gonzalez and Hector Del Toro, are the only other inmates in the unit.
Velella was sentenced
to a year in prison last spring but was released three months later through
the Local Conditional Release Commission.
Members of the
board that freed him resigned, and a new board, organized by New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg, ordered Velella back to jail.
Shyne is currently
serving 10 years for allegedly firing a 9-mm gun into a crowd outside a nightclub
in the infamous 1997 incident involving Bad Boy Entertainment head Sean "P.
Diddy" Combs and actress/singer Jennifer Lopez. Combs was acquitted of
gun charges.
Shyne will be up
for parole in 2009 and his incarceration didn’t stop him from moving ahead with
his rap career.
The Brooklyn-bred
MC signed with Def Jam Records in April in a deal that was reportedly worth
$3 million in advance for his first album, Godfather: Buried Alive,
released in August.
The rapper is also
teaming with actor/former rapper Mark Wahlberg to produce an untitled documentary
about their lives and their differences. The film is slated to be released next
summer.