Former NBA player Sebastian Telfair has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for gun possession, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced Monday.
Telfair was convicted of criminal possession of a weapon in April after officers found a gun in his car during a 2017 traffic stop.
The 33-year-old former point guard who once played for teams including the Boston Celtics, Portland Trail Blazers, and Minnesota Timberwolves was pulled over in Brooklyn on June 11, 2017 after parking on a center median, making a U-turn off the median and driving without headlights, the district attorney’s office said in a news release, citing trial testimony.
The officers who pulled Telfair over reported smelling the odor of marijuana and observed a lit marijuana cigarette in the car’s console, the release from the district attorney’s office said.
After Telfair and a male passenger were arrested, officers searched the vehicle and recovered a loaded .45 caliber gun in the console, the district attorney’s office said.
“This defendant exercised his right to a jury trial and was found guilty of possessing an illegal firearm,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “The mandatory prison sentence he received today is required by law and he has now been held accountable for the unlawful conduct.”
