Onetime American professional basketball player Sebastian Telfair was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for illegal weapons possession, Brooklyn’s top prosecutor announced Monday.
The nine-year NBA veteran was slapped with felony charges for carrying a loaded .45-caliber handgun, which police discovered during a traffic stop in June 2017, according to District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
Cops stopped Telfair and another man after spotting the athlete pull an illegal U turn on Atlantic Avenue near Classon Avenue and then drive towards Prospect Heights with his headlights off at 2:50 a.m. on June 11, according to Gonzalez.
The officers detected an odor of weed, and after a brief search discovered a lit joint and the fully loaded .45-caliber pistol in the center console of his car, as well as a small arsenal that included a submachine gun, two other pistols, and a bulletproof vest stashed in his trunk, according to prosecutors.
Telfair had Florida gun permits for all of his weapons, and jury only found him guilty in April of felony second-degree criminal possession for the pistol that was within arms reach at the time of his arrest
Federal prosecutors also charged the baller’s sister, Octavia Telfair, on May 20 for threatening a witness who testified against Sebastian during his trial.
This isn’t the first time police caught Telfair locked and loaded — the basketball player was cuffed for carrying a loaded handgun in Yonkers back in 2007, earning him three years probation, according to a spokesman for Gonzalez.
