Jussie Smollett Gets 150 Days In Jail & 30 Months Probation Over Faked 2019 Attack; “I Am Not Suicidal, I Am Innocent!’ Declares ‘Empire’ Actor

deadline.com:

Just over three months after being found guilty on five felony counts, including lying to Chicago cops about an alleged 2019 hate crime attack, former Empire actor Jussie Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in jail today starting immediately.

The incarceration comes as a part of an overall sentence of 30 months probation, $120,106 in restitution to the Windy City and a further $25,000 fine.Pulling off his mask, Smollett leapt up screaming “I am not suicidal” soon as the sentence was unveiled and deputies prepared to take him to the Cook County Jail. “If anything happens to me in there, I did not do it,” the performer exclaimed.

Led out of the courtroom, Smollett raised his fist in the air and yelled “I am not suicidal, I am innocent!” again.Facing up to three years in prison on each charge and tens of thousands in fines on the felonies for the well-publicized case, the innocence insisting Smollett was always looking unlikely to get the maximum by Cook County Judge James Linn because of his lack of any previous criminal record.

Though an argued motion to toss out the December 9 verdict and get a new trial failed earlier in Thursday’s hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in the Windy City, defense attorney Tina Glandian and Smollett’s other lawyers made it clear before and after sentencing they plan to appeal what was just handed down.Promising no “cookie cutter justice,” Judge Linn said from the bench in announcing sentencing that he didn’t believe he could make the findings to hand down consecutive sentences on the five Class 4 felonies.