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Nicki Minaj’s New Man Served Prison Time After Being Convicted of Manslaughter

Nicki Minaj shocked fans this week when it became known that her new beau served time in prison after being convicted of manslaughter for shooting a man to death.

According to a criminal complaint from the Queens County District Attorney and obtained by The Blast, Kenneth ‘Zoo’ Petty pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of a man named Lamont Robinson in 2002.

“The defendant, Kenneth Petty, shot the deceased, Lamont Robinson, with a loaded handgun [sic] multiple times thereby causing his death,” the complaint read. Originally charged with murder in the second degree, a plea bargain reduced the charge to manslaughter, The Blast reports.

Nicki Minaj and Kenneth Petty

Petty pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charge in March 2006 and served seven years in prison after being sentenced to 10. According to records accessed by PEOPLE, he was released in May 2013 and had been on supervised release for five years until May of this year.
In addition to the manslaughter charge, Petty, 40, is a level two registered sex offender in New York, which means he’s considered a “moderate risk of repeat offense” and will be required to register as a sex offender for life.

According to online records from the New York Division of Criminal Justice Services, Petty was convicted in April 1995 of attempted rape in the first degree for an incident that occurred in September 1994 involving a 16-year-old girl. He was sentenced to 18 to 54 months in prison, but it is unclear how much time he actually served.

In response to Instagram comment criticisms about the relationship, the “Barbie Dreams” artist wrote, “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. Thank you boo.”

TMZ reports Minaj has known Petty since they were teenagers and is “confident he’s matured.” The site reports sources close to Minaj claim the mother of Petty’s girlfriend at the time filed the charges because she did not approve of him.

Source: People