Nicki Minaj’s husband, Kenneth “Zoo” Petty, may be returning to prison soon…
Petty, 43, pleaded guilty during a virtual court hearing this past Thursday to a charge of failure to register as a sex offender in California.
Petty, 43, pleaded guilty in a virtual court hearing Thursday to a charge of failure to register as a sex offender in California, per court documents
His change of heart — he previously said he was not guilty — appears to be part of a plea deal that he signed with the assistant United States attorney in August.
Petty faces up to 10 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release.
He is due back in court on Jan. 24, 2022, for sentencing.
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Petty was arrested in March 2020 after he was ordered to register as a sex offender in California in November 2019 and did not do so.
Previously, he was convicted of attempting to rape a 16-year-old girl in 1994 and was already registered as a sex offender in New York. He then moved out of the state after marrying Minaj in October 2019.
Minaj, 38, defended Petty in December 2018, writing on Instagram at the time, “He was 15, she was 16 … in a relationship. But go awf, internet, y’all can’t run my life. y’all can’t even run y’all own life.”
Petty’s accuser, Jennifer Hough, claimed in a recent lawsuit that she was never in a relationship with him and that they were the same age at the time of the incident.
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Minaj and Petty welcomed their first child, a son, in September 2020. In February Minaj’s father Robert Maraj, 64, died after being struck in a tragic hit-and-run in Mineloa, New York. The death has been confirmed by the Nassau County Police Department.
Maraj, who lived in Mineola, was struck while walking around 6 p.m — he was then taken to the hospital where he eventually passed away. The driver of the vehicle reportedly fled the scene “without a meaningful description from witnesses.”
Minaj, who was born Onika Tanya Maraj, has not publicly addressed his death. Previously, the singer has described Maraj as violent towards her mother, once revealing in a 2010 interview how her father once set fire to their home with her mother inside.
“I remember when my mother would let my father be violent with her and she always brings up this story about when I was a little girl and I would stand in front of my mother,” the singer said, demonstrating how she put her arms out for protection, in her 2018 documentary Queen.
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