On Tuesday (Apr. 16), rapper NBA YoungBoy, née Kentrell Gaulden, was arrested and booked in Utah on multiple charges.
According to inmate records from Cache County Jail, Gaulden was arrested for a plethora of charges: pattern of unlawful activity, procurement or attempted procurement of drugs or prescriptions, identity fraud, forgery, possession of other controlled substances and possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person. These charges range from Class-B misdemeanors to 2nd degree felonies.
Should Gaulden be convicted, he could face several years in prison along with some hefty fines.
Tuesday's incident is by no means Gaulden's first brush with the law. The 24-year-old has a long history of legal trouble, beginning in 2014 when he was charged for robbery as a juvenile. Since then, he has faced charges for kidnapping, battery, assault and attempted murder as well as a slew of firearm charges.
He was put on house arrest in 2019 after initially violating his probation; a judge later terminated his probation that same year before ultimately sentencing him to yet another year of probation after he pleaded guilty to a 2018 simple assault charge.
Gaulden was notably arrested in September 2020 after he was, allegedly, spotted with two guns while filming a music video in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. At the time, Gaulden's lawyer, James Manasseh, said that "there was no indication that [Gaulden] had any guns or drugs on him at the time of the arrest. I ultimately believe he will be found innocent in all of this."
Manasseh claimed that there was "nothing in the report that indicates that he did anything wrong."
In March 2021, federal agents arrested Gaulden in Los Angeles, booking him on federal firearms charges. He was released in October in a staggering $1.5 million bail. Gaulden was ultimately found not guilty of his California gun charges in July 2022.
He remains on trial for his other federal firearm charge. The trial was paused this March as the U.S. Supreme Court is set to make a ruling regarding the Second Amendment later this spring. The Court's decision could impact Gaulden's case.
After his October 2021 release, Gaulden was sentenced to house arrest in Salt Lake City, UT, where he has been living since. His lawyers believed that moving the rapper to Utah would help to keep him "out of trouble."
In a 2023 interview with Billboard, Gaulden referred to his house arrest as "the best thing that ever happened to me." The rapper is allowed three pre-approved visitors at a time.
In December 2023, Gaulden asked a judge to allow him more time to attend recording studio sessions as he argued that his label had warned him of declining sales due to his "inability to create music during his confinement."
The judge denied this request, but allowed him access to mental health treatments. The judge cited Gaulden's history of violence as a reason to keep the Baton Rouge native in the house. All other travel requests must be brought to court and will be analyzed on a "case-by-case basis."
Gaulden now sits in Cache County Jail. No bail has been set for the rapper's release.
