Lil’ Kim gets year in prison, fine for lying

Grammy-winning rapper Lil’ Kim was sentenced Wednesday to a year and a day in prison and fined $50,000 for lying to a federal grand jury to protect friends involved in a 2001 shootout outside a Manhattan radio station.

It was far less than the 20-year maximum she could have gotten and the nearly three-year sentence prosecutors had sought.

U.S. District Judge Gerard Lynch said he had considered the public perception of sending a young black entertainer to prison far longer than Martha Stewart, who spent five months in prison and remains under house arrest.

While many rappers have served time in prison, Lil’ Kim (real name Kimberly Jones), who was convicted in March, is the first big-name female artist.

Before the sentence was handed down, the 29-year-old performer spoke briefly, her voice breaking. She admitted lying to the grand jury and at her trial. “At the time I thought it was the right thing to do but I now know it was wrong,” she said.