Jussie Smollett has been sentenced to 150 days in jail and 30 months probation for staging a hate crime against himself.
The former Empire star was previously charged with six counts of disorderly conduct, after falsely reporting he had been the victim of a homophobic and racist attack in January 2019.
In December 2021, the actor was found guilty on five of the six counts, each count representing a false statement made.
At his sentencing on Thursday, Cook County judge James Linn denied a request to suspend his sentence, and ordered that Jussie be placed in custody immediately.
The 39-year-old was also fined $25,000, and ordered to pay $120,106 in restitution to the city of Chicago.
Jussie, who loudly claimed he was innocent in court, has the right to appeal his sentence.
🚨BREAKING: Jussie Smollett SCREAMS in rage at sentencing Judge as he’s handcuffed and sent to JAIL for FAKING a hate crime pic.twitter.com/BkQjtuyf5l
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) March 11, 2022
In January 2019, Jussie told police that he was walking home in Chicago when two masked men attacked him, and hurled racist abuse at him.
In court, prosecutors claimed the actor staged the attack to get media attention, and paid $3,500 to two brothers, Abimbola “Bola” and Olabinjo “Ola” Osundairo, to help him fake the incident.
During his court testimony, Abimbola claimed he was contacted by Jussie who “explained that he wanted me to fake beat him up.”
According to CBS2, Abimbola said he agreed because he “felt indebted to Jussie” and “believed he could further my acting career.”
Jussie repeatedly denied their claims in court, and said their account was “100% false”.
During a week-long trial in December, the actor’s defence attorneys argued that the brothers attacked him because they were homophobic and did not like “who he was”.
They also claimed the brothers made up the story about the attack being “fake” to get money from Jussie.
