Rapper and long-time Wu-Tang Clan affiliate Shyheim Franklin was arrested in connection with a New Year’s hit-and-run accident in Staten Island, N.Y. that left a 29-year-old dead.
The 36-year-old turned himself in on Wednesday.
According to Billboard:
Felipe Avila of Tompkinsville was killed in the early morning crash, after Franklin allegedly ran a stoplight.
The rapper is understood to be facing a charge of leaving the scene of a fatal accident, a class D felony. At the time of the accident, he was out on $10,000 bail following his April 2013 arrest on gun and drug possession charges.
This isn’t the first time the rapper has run into trouble. According to SILIVE:
He also has a lengthy criminal history that includes serving 16 months of a two-year prison sentence for a 2002 second-degree attempted robbery conviction.
Stories in the Advance archive and public records also detail his criminal history and his past brushes with violence. He was the victim of a slashing in 1997, and in 1998, he received probation after he was found with a gun stolen from the LAPD six years prior.
In 1999, a 15-year-old boy was shot to death at a Stapleton nightclub during a release party for one of Franklin’s CDs.
His arrest in April stemmed from a police search of his 185 St. Mark’s Place apartment in St. George — members of the Staten Island Gang Squad found a loaded .32 caliber Serrifile Inc. Terrier One revolver under his mattress, 41 glassines of heroin in a safe under his bed, a Xanax pill in a plastic zipper bag on his bedside table, and a scale alongside empty bags and glassines under his bed, court papers allege.
Well, damn! We’ll keep you updated on any developments in Shyheim’s case.
