Former NBA player Sebastian Telfair was sentenced to three and a half years behind bars on weapons charges on Monday and subsequently had an emotional meltdown in Brooklyn court, crying and yelling.
Telfair walked into the courtroom, saying, “God on the throne, that’s what my mother says, God still sits on the throne.’’ Then the ex-Trailblazer exclaimed, “Please don’t take me from society right now. I am 34. I can go play in China for six years and take care of my family. I’m waiting for my daughter right now to get her period. Real mental illness because I wasn’t around … She hasn’t even gotten her period yet.”
Crying and yelling, Telfair added, “Sebastian Telfair is going to jail for a … victimless crime. Put a gun in his hand and fight for us n**ga … I go to the gun store. I got an American Express.’’
Telfair was stopped by police in New York back in 2017 for driving without his lights on and illegally parking on the median of Atlantic Avenue. According to the New York Post, police searched his vehicle after they claimed it smelled of marijuana.
In the search, police found three loaded handguns, a submachine gun, ammunition, extended magazines, and a ballistic vest. Telfair told The Post before his sentencing that the weapons were his and legally licensed, however, they were licensed in Florida, not New York.
He claimed he didn’t know they were in his truck because he was going through a divorce at the time and had movers put some of his possessions inside and drive it up for him from Florida. The traffic stop was his first time back in his vehicle since it arrived in New York.
Telfair said the search of his vehicle was illegal because the officers didn’t have a warrant, but the Brooklyn’s District Attorney’s Office and the Internal Affairs Bureau concluded that the arrest was justified. Apparently, the judge agreed.
