Judge sends singer Sean Kingston to jail for over 3 years: ‘He is a thief and a conman, plain and simple’

Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Paul Anderson, and his mother, Janice Eleanor Turner, were convicted in March by a federal jury of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud

Turner was sentenced to five years in prison last month

Judge David Leibowitz handed down Kingston’s sentence, the singer apologized to the judge in the South Florida courtroom and said he had learned from his actions

His attorney asked if he could self-surrender at a later date due to health issues, but the judge ordered him taken into custody immediately

Kingston, who was wearing a black suit and white shirt, removed his suit jacket and was handcuffed and led from the courtroom

Attorney Marc Anton described Kingston as someone addicted to his celebrity lifestyle even though he could no longer afford to maintain it. “He ly doesn’t to pay and relies on his celebrity to defraud his victims,” Anton said Friday

The federal secutor described a yearslong pattern by Kingston of bullying victims for luxury merchandise and then refusing to pay. “He is a thief and a conman, plain and simple,” Anton said

Defense attorney Zeljka Bozanic countered that the 35-year-old Kingston had the mentality of a teenager — the age he was when he vaulted to stardom

The attorney said Kingston had almost no knowledge of his finances, relying on managers and his mother. “No one showed him how to invest his money,” Bozanic said. “Money went in and money went out on superficial things.” Bozanic said Kingston has already started paying back his victims and intends to pay back every cent once he is free and can start working again

Leibowitz rejected the idea that Kingston was unintelligent or naive, but the judge said he gave Kingston credit for accepting responsibility and declining to testify rather than possibly lying in court

That was in contrast to Kingston’s mother, whose trial testimony Leibowitz described as obstruction

Turner was taken into custody during the raid, while Kingston was arrested at Fort Irwin, an Army training base in California’s Mojave Desert, where he was performing

After negotiating deals, Kingston would invite the sellers to one of his high-end Florida s and mise to feature them and their ducts on social media

Investigators said that when it came time to pay, Kingston or his mother would text the victims fake wire receipts for the items, which included a bulletof Escalade, watches and a 19-foot (5.9-meter) LED TV, investigators said

When the funds never ed, victims often ed Kingston and Turner repeatedly, but were either never paid or received money only after filing lawsuits or ing law enforcement, authorities said

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