Things do not look good for actor Jussie Smollett who is facing up to 3 years in prison for allegedly staging a fake hate crime in 2019.
The jury is out for deliberation, and after wild testimonies, prosecutors are more than confident that Jussie will be found guilty. Special prosecutor Dan Webb, told the jury earlier on Wednesday that the evidence against Smollett is “overwhelming,” and that what he did in January 2019 caused Chicago police to spend enormous amounts of time and resources investigating an alleged crime that turned out to be hoax. See related article: Jussie Smollett Staged Attack Because Of Being Written Off Empire?
Jussie testified that the attack was not fake on his end, and says that the brothers Olabingo and Abimbola Osundairo are liars. Under oath, Jussie admitted to taking drugs and having sexual encounters with Abimbola at a bathhouse. Abimbola denied the sexual part but says he did go with Smollett to the bathhouse. Smollets lawyer Nenye Uche says Olabingo is homophobic and constantly uses racial slurs often, and that his brother may have taken part in the attack due to self hatred.
Now the prosecutor says Jussie and the brothers did a dry run a couple days before the “attack” to plan out how it would be. The brothers testified that Smollett pointed out a surveillance camera near the intersection that would record the fake attack, so it could be publicized on social media. There indeed was surveillance showing Smollett driving around his apartment but never parking, but Smollett says that wasn’t uncommon for him.
Smollett’s lawyer said Jussie was riding around smoking weed and coming up with music, which is common for him, but prosecutors never attempted to obtain that footage.
“They don’t want to do it because it would show you it wasn’t a dry run,” Uche said.
The Osundairo brothers also testified that Smollett gave them $100 for supplies which included the rope for a noose to be made. Prosecutors say there was surveillance video from Chicago businesses that captured the men buying the items.
Jussie’s lawyer says Smollett was just trying to arrange a work out session and buy a sub, and that’s how the brothers knew where he was at 2 am, but prosecution is not buying it and says he is straight up lying to the jury. They say that Smollett wanted the media attention but had hopes that the brothers would just not work with authorities to solve the case. “Mr. Smollett developed a plan to carry out a fake hate crime,” he said. “He then falsely reported the fake hate crime to the Chicago Police Department as a real hate crime.”
Webb says one of the biggest things against Smollett in the case is that he lied about the attackers being white. “He not only told you [jurors] he assumed they were White, he told the police that,” said Webb. “He wants police to be looking for someone White.” He also said that Smollett “monkeyed around” with the rope after the attack.
Uche says the attack was either based on homophobia or to scare Smollett into hiring the brothers as security. He said Jussie received a “hate letter” in the mail at the “Empire” studio in Chicago on January 22, 2019, seven days before the alleged attack. Afterward, Bola Osundairo approached him about becoming his personal security guard, something Osundairo had repeatedly asked him, Smollett testified.
It’s doubtful that Smollett will actually do time, and media suspects that he will be given fines and community service. His career has not been the same either, as he has not appeared on a TV show since being written off Empire.
Do you believe Jussie? Let us know in the comments.
