Casanova is not having a good time behind bars. In addition to facing 15-60 years on federal RICO and narcotics charges, his life is now seemingly under threat from other members of his Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation gang, which he recently cut ties with.
NBC 4 reports the Brooklyn rapper was a victim of jail violence on Thursday, June 15. According to the news report, Casa had his faced slashed in a “vicious” altercation with another inmate at the Essex County Correction Facility in Newark, where he was waiting sentencing in his RICO case.
Court documents obtained by NBC New York say Casanova, whose real name is Caswell Senior, was physically assaulted with a weapon—believed to be some sort of blade across the face—by another inmate named Ulysses Lugo.
After getting slashed, Cas, with the help of other inmates chased Lugo, jumped on top of him and “cut Inmate Lugo’s face several times.”
A correction officer said on the news report that Casanova had been sitting “and blood was just coming out of his face.”
“Inmate Lugo? You couldn’t see his face because it was saturated in blood… and his whole uniform was saturated in blood. Inmate Senior was sitting there and blood was just coming out of his face,” the correctional officer said.
No weapon was found after the attack, but one inmate was reportedly seen trying to flush an unknown object down the toilet.
A spokesperson for Essex County, Anthony Puglisi said the incident is under investigation.
The incident comes just days after Casanova renounced his ties to the Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation. In a pre-sentencing letter to the judge, the former gang member admitted he promoted a gang lifestyle in hopes of getting a lighter sentence.
“I am telling you and anyone that will listen that I wanted out before I was arrested and I am out,” he said. “I learned through my music career that people will listen and that I don’t need to associate myself with a gang to succeed. I don’t need to associate with a gang even if I don’t succeed.
“I thought I needed to stay in the life in name because it was a way to promote my career. I don’t care what the government tells you. I am telling you the truth. I was not involved in the daily activities of this gang. I wasn’t anyone’s boss. What I was and I regret this was a person that they could use to promote themselves in a world I swear to you I was trying to leave. I clearly did not do a good enough job of this as I did find myself in one bad situation after another.”
Casanova pled guilty last May to one count of conspiring to conduct and participate in the conduct of the affairs of a criminal enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity and one count of conspiring to distribute over 100 kilograms of marijuana. As noted above, he could face a maximum of 60 years in prison when he is sentenced on June 27.
