Casanova is facing 60 years
after pleading guilty to drug and racketeering charges,
He distanced himself from his old crew,
then just days later
his face got slashed in prison -
and today we’re breaking down the entire story.
On Thursday June 16th,
Casanova was sitting in the Essex County Correctional Facility
when a dude named Ulysses Lugo came at him with a blade.
Casanova’s face got slashed up,
but he didn’t just sit there and take it.
Cas started fighting back,
and that’s when Lugo tried to run off
but got chased down by Cas and his homies.
By the time the guards got there to break the situation up,
Cas had allegedly already cut Lugo “several” times in the face too.
It’s not clear why Lugo went after Cas like that,
but rumors are flying that it’s related to a letter
Casanova sent to the judge in his case a few days ago.
He was accused of being a shot caller for the Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation Gang,
and in 2020 he got taken down in a RICO indictment
with 17 other Gorilla Stone affiliates.
He pleaded not guilty at first,
but later he took a deal and pleaded guilty to being involved with a shooting in 2020,
a robbery in 2018,
and selling between 100 and 400 kilos of weed.
Even though Cas copped a plea deal,
he’s still facing 60 years in prison -
and last week he sent a letter to the judge
where he talked about giving up the street life.
Cas started the letter off
by taking responsibility for everything in his past,
but he told the judge he never had anyone to show him a better path
so he had to learn how to survive the streets by himself.
He also brought up how he’s been working with young people in the streets
over the last few years
and trying to lead them down a better path so they don’t end up like he did.
Casanova came up in the Flatbush area of Brooklyn
and put both feet in the trenches as a teenager.
He dropped out of school in 8th grade and was in the streets full time,
and it didn’t take long for it to start catching up with him.
In 2006 he got booked on a robbery charge at the age of 19
and didn’t come home until almost eight years later.
Life on the inside wasn’t easy.
Cas had to fight every day just to survive,
and he told DJ Vlad
that he probably sliced up around twelve dudes while he was locked up.
In his letter to the judge,
Casanova said he had to act the part
but all he wanted to do was end it all.
This wasn’t the first time that his suicidal thoughts have been brought up to the judge.
Back in 2022 when he pleaded guilty,
Cas told the judge that he had been put on suicide watch a few days before
and explained that he had attempted to kill himself a “couple of times"
when he was a teenager.
It sounds like he’s been trying to get away from the street life for a long time,
and he wrote
“I am telling you and anyone that will listen
that I wanted out before I was arrested and I am out.”
When he finally came back in 2014,
Cas knew he had to switch up how he moved.
He actually linked up with ASAP Rocky
while they were cellmates together on Rikers Island,
and in 2016
Cas hopped in the booth and started dropping tracks.
His first single Don’t Run had his name buzzing in the city,
and a few months later
he signed a deal with Memphis Bleek
on his Warehouse Music Group label under Roc Nation.
Next, he dropped an EP in 2018
and his debut album in 2019,
and that’s when Casanova realized he could make a difference through his music.
In the letter he said
“I learned through my music career that people will listen
and that I don’t need to associate myself with a gang to succeed.
I don’t need to associate with a gang even if I don’t succeed.”
But even though he was trying to make a change,
Cas admits that he kept pushin the gangster image to promote his career.
In the RICO indictment
they accused him of being a high-ranking member
of the Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation and calling the shots,
but Cas wrote
“I don’t care what the government tells you.
I am telling you the truth.
I was not involved in the daily activities of this gang.
I wasn’t anyone’s boss.”
Cas wanted out,
but he let the gang use his name for promotion,
and he said
“What I was and I regret this
was a person that they could use to promote themselves
in a world I swear to you I was trying to leave.”
He also apologized for the 2018 robbery charge:
Cas was at a diner with some friends
when a woman started recording him on her phone.
Casanova allegedly snatched the phone out of her hand,
and that’s when another Gorilla Stone affiliate got involved
and choked her unconscious.
When it first went down
rumors said that Cas ordered the dude to choke her out,
but last year he told the court that he didn’t tell him to do it
and that he actually picked the woman off the ground
and handed her phone back when the situation was over.
In the letter to the judge,
Casanova apologized again
for everything that happened and said
“I am sorry for my past.
I am sorry for the robbery
but I am telling you I acted out of impulse
in taking the lady’s phone and deleting the videos
but that is all I wanted to do.”
He said that he never wanted anyone to get hurt
and told the judge again that he didn’t order the other dude to put hands on her.
While he was pleading guilty last year,
the judge asked prosecutors what kind of evidence they had on Cas.
At first,
a lot of fans thought it would be better for him to take it to trial,
but it turns out
the Untouchable Gorilla Stones had some major leaks in the crew.
The cops had tape of a jail call between two members
where they were talking about how Casanova always carries a gun,
and on another call
someone in the gang said they were worried that the way Cas was acting
would hurt his rap career.
Cas also admitted to being involved in a shooting
that went down at a house party in July 2020.
He told the judge that he was invited to a mansion
with his wife and some other friends and he started shooting dice.
Cas lost a couple bands that was supposed to go to the whole table,
but when he handed it over,
one of the dudes tried to pocket the whole stack and a fight broke out.
Someone passed Casanova a strap,
and it allegedly went off during all the chaos.
It’s been pretty clear that he’s trying to leave the streets behind him,
but that’s allegedly what got him sliced up.
At the end of his letter to the judge,
Cas said
“I am telling you and anyone that will listen
I am no longer a member of Gorilla Stone or any other gang.”
Rumors say a high ranking member wanted to punish Cas
for trying to leave the gang,
but there’s no evidence to back that up right now.
The rumors probably started because of another Gorilla Stone member
named Brandon Nieves who took a plea deal too.
Nieves was caught on wiretap
with two other Gorilla Stones
who were planning on stabbing other members of the gang
who weren’t holding it down while they were locked up.
He was already on probation for ordering a different stabbing,
so it’s pretty clear that the Stones are willing to get people shanked
if they cross the gang.
There’s a chance that Casanova got attacked by his old crew,
but others think that he was stabbed over rumors about him snitching.
Back in 2021,
a rapper named Troy Ave posted paperwork
that allegedly proved Casanova snitched on his homie
over a murder investigation.
It’s not clear if the paperwork was even legit though,
and right now nobody knows for sure why Cas got sliced up.
Casanova fought his way out of the trenches
and tried to leave it all behind,
but the drama never left
and now it’s getting more serious than ever.
It seems like Cas really does want to change his life
and use his rap career to keep other people out of the street,
He’s been affiliated with the Untouchable Gorilla Stones since he was a teenager,
so he knew that putting the letter out there could have violent consequences
and he still put it out there -
which proves how serious he is about the situation.
Unfortunately the judge didn't feel the apology was enough
On June 27th,
news broke that Casanova had been handed down a 15 year sentence.
Cas tried to convince everyone he was changing for the better,
but an attorney named Damian Williams said
that he played a big part in the Gorilla Stone crew
and helped them expand all over the country.
Fans were hoping that the judge would take it easier on Cas during the sentencing,
but at least he didn’t get hit with the full 60 years he was facing.
If he keeps his head down and stays out of trouble on the inside,
he could get a few years taken off for good behavior -
but that’s gonna be hard to do when he’s got dudes coming at him with blades.
Hopefully Cas stays safe in there,
but tap in for updates because this story definitely isn’t over yet.