Max B 75-Year Sentence Gets Reduced To 20 Years After Plea Deal

Imprisoned Harlem rapper Max B had his 75-year sentence for a deadly 2009 robbery trimmed by at least 55 years in a momentous legal victory for the hip-hop icon.

A conflict of interest on the part of one the artist’s former attorneys led Bergen County Judge James Guida to re-sentence him to 20 years after he took a plea deal and pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter.

“I just want to thank you for the fair treatment, you know, looking into the situation to at least give me another opportunity to someday reunite with my children and my family,” Wingate said to the judge on Friday while his fans and family filled a New Jersey courtroom, NorthJersey.com reported.

The reversal was the result of a motion for post-conviction relief filed in 2014 by Wingate’s defense team, arguing that one of his original attorneys, Gerald M. Saluti — who also represented him as a recording artist — had a financial stake in the outcome of his case.

Earlier this summer, a judge ruled to vacate the prior convictions.

Before Wingate wound up behind bars, he collaborated with rappers including Cam’ron and Jim Jones, and was made famous as the father of “Wavy” hip-hop.

"Please don't take the wave," Khalifa blasted West on Twitter, on behalf of his imprisoned former collaborator. "Max B is the wavy one. He created the wave. There is no wave without him." Yeezy ended up titling the album "The Life of Pablo."

His June 2009 conviction galvanized the hip-hop community with a "Free Max B" campaign and a White House petition called "Pardon the Wave."

Prosecutors charged Wingate as an accomplice and mastermind behind the deadly robbery, although he didn't personally carry out the crime.

In the early hours of Sept. 22, 2006, Wingate’s ex-girlfriend Gina Conway and stepbrother Kelvin Leerdam barged into a room at a Fort Lee, N.J., Holiday Inn and demanded money from men they knew were staying there. They fatally shot one man, David Taylor, Jr., in the room.

Leerdam was later sentenced to life plus 35 years while Conway, who pleaded guilty for her role, testified against Wingate and took a plea deal.

Wingate rejected a plea deal for a 10-year sentence at the counsel of Saluti, opting instead to go to trial.

"It was basically a life sentence," Wingate’s attorney, John Latoracca, said.

"Now it's just a matter of when, for him, before he returns to his family and friends and hopefully his career," he said.

Wingate released a statement following the court's decision, thanking his supporters that have been "holding it down for me all these years, still banging my music and still keeping it wavy. I love you all. Stay Wavy."

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