Rapper T.I. pleads guilty to firearms charges

Atlanta rapper T.I. used the fame he gained glorifying violence in his music to cut a deal Thursday that keeps him out of federal prison in the coming year and on the road preaching nonviolence to kids.

T.I., whose real name in Clifford Harris Jr., faced a minimum of 4 years 9 months behind bars after he was caught last fall buying machine guns and silencers in an undercover sting.

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T.I.

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But if Harris abides by his extraordinary plea agreement, he will spend less than a year in prison.

Before he surrenders to begin serving time, he must perform at least 1,000 hours of community service telling kids about the pitfalls of crime, drugs and gangs and encouraging them to respect the law.

The details of Harris’ plea deal were outlined Thursday during an hourlong hearing in which he pleaded guilty to two charges of illegally possessing firearms and another for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

One of the world’s best-known rap artists, Harris was arrested Oct. 13, just hours before he was to receive two awards at the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta.

Harris, 27, wearing a gray sharkskin suit, was smiling as he walked up to a bank of microphones outside the federal courthouse after his plea. He vowed to dedicate himself to changing the lives of young people.

“I’m not looking forward to being incarcerated,” Harris said. “I have a long road of redemption to travel. … I realize completely I violated the law, and I take it very seriously.”

U.S. District Court Judge Charles Pannell Jr. scheduled Harris’ sentencing for March 27, 2009. If the musician abides by the conditions of his plea agreement, Pannell is bound to impose a prison sentence of one year plus one day.

He is expected to serve less than a year, however. Because of a quirk in Bureau of Prisons rules, inmates get credit for good behavior — and can carve off 15 percent of their incarcerations — only if they are sentenced to more than a year.

The agreement also says that if Harris does not abide by the conditions in his plea and no longer accepts responsibility for his actions, Pannell can slam him with a sentence of more than 8 years in prison.

Harris also was fined $100,000 and sentenced to a year’s home confinement. He has been out on $3 million bond, and he will get credit for time spent in home confinement since late October and any time he spends at home in the coming year.

“He can perform, act in movies [and] carry on with his business until the end of the 12-month period,” said Ed Garland, one of Harris’ six attorneys.

All the while, a private security officer will shadow Harris and report on him if he strays.

Carl Lietz, an Atlanta lawyer and former federal defender, expressed astonishment at the agreement.

“That is an outstanding deal, given what he was facing,” Lietz said. “This is a very unusual, and in my experience, unprecedented way to resolve a case involving these allegations.”

U.S. Attorney David Nahmias defended the deal, saying preventing crime is a paramount objective.

“If Mr. Harris performs as expected, his efforts and ability to reach and influence a large number of young people should prevent and deter at least some of them from committing crimes that endanger their communities and ruin their lives,” Nahmias said.

Steve Sadow, another one of Harris’ attorneys, called the agreement “fair and reasonable. … T.I. knows he’s getting a second chance here, and he’s going to make the most of it.”

Since 1997, Harris has had a string of run-ins with the law that placed him in jail or under arrest, including a 1998 crack cocaine distribution conviction in Cobb County.

His career took off after he devoted himself to rap music. His 2003 CD, “Trap Muzik,” was well received and “T.I. vs. T.I.P.” topped the charts last summer.

In May 2006, tragedy struck Harris after his show before an raucous crowd in Cincinnati. As his entourage drove away, one van was hit by gunfire. One of Harris’ friends and assistants was shot and killed, and his head of security was wounded. The shooters have not been identified.

Over the next year and a half, Harris appeared to be assembling enough weaponry to start a war or end one.

Last September and October, one of Harris’ bodyguards bought nine firearms for Harris. The bodyguard, whose name has not been disclosed, took the weapons to Harris’ College Park home. Inside, the bodyguard saw a false wall hiding a walk-in safe loaded with weapons, Assistant U.S. Attorney Francey Hakes said.

On Oct. 10, Harris gave the bodyguard $12,000 cash to buy machine guns. But the bodyguard was arrested after he bought the weapons from an undercover agent of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives.

Now cooperating and wearing a hidden wire, the bodyguard arranged to meet Harris on Oct. 13 at the parking lot outside a Midtown Publix.

He handed over three machine guns and two silencers to Harris, who was soon arrested by agents. Inside Harris’ car, agents found three loaded handguns and a magazine of ammunition in the pocket of an Armani coat in the back seat.

Later that day, law enforcement searched Harris’ home and found at least six more weapons, various empty boxes that once contained a number of pistols and numerous rounds of ammunition.

— Staff writer Jamie Gumbrecht contributed to this article.