Casanova Sentenced To More Than 15 Years In Prison
Brooklyn rapper Casanova, born Caswell Senior, has been sentenced to 188 months in prison on gang-related racketeering and narcotics charges. According to a press release from the US Department of Justice, Casanova had a leadership role in the Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation Bloods Gang, or Gorilla Stone for short. This led to his involvement in a July 2020 shooting in Florida, an August 2018 robbery in New York, and conspiracy to traffic 100 kilograms of marijuana — crimes he confessed to while pleading guilty to racketeering and narcotics charges.
Casanova was arrested on various charges in December 2020, and prosecutors added an attempted murder charge in 2021. A statement from US Attorney Damian Williams:
Caswell Senior is not just a notorious recording artist, but he is also a high-profile leader of a vicious street gang and a magnet for gang violence. At a crowded Miami house party, Senior personally fired a gun that seriously injured and could have killed a victim, inciting a shootout. Further, Senior’s stature in the community was central to Gorilla Stone’s successful recruitment and nationwide expansion. Today’s sentencing — along with the other significant sentences that have been imposed in this case — shows once again that gang life is not worth it and will lead to many years in prison.
Casanova is the 12th Gorilla Stone member to be sentenced by US District Judge Philip M. Halpern.