Nicki Minaj’s Husband Sentenced to a Year in Home Confinement for Failing to Register as Sex Offender

Nicki Minaj’s husband Kenneth Petty was sentenced on Wednesday to a year under home confinement, along with three years’ probation and a $55,000 fine, for failing to register in California as a sex offender. 

Petty took a plea deal last year, admitting that he failed to register as a sex offender after he moved to California with Minaj following their 2019 marriage. Petty was convicted of attempted rape in New York in the early ‘90s, serving over four years in prison. Through that conviction, Petty is required to register as a sex offender wherever he lives. 

The year confined at home is less severe than federal prosecutors’ call for Petty to spend 15 months in prison. As TMZ previously reported, home confinement wouldn’t be a severe enough punishment given that Petty lives with Minaj in a lavish home in a gated community in Calabasas. But Judge Michael Fitzgerald said in the sentencing hearing that given the less severe nature compared to other cases of sex offenders failing to register if they move, combined with the strain another prisoner would have on the prison system in the middle of a surge in Covid cases from the Omicron variant, prison wasn’t the way to handle the case.

Minaj wasn’t at her husband’s sentencing hearing, which Petty’s defense attorneys said was to avoid causing a spectacle for the event. Instead, she supplied a lengthy letter to Petty’s defense team, who read the letter during the sentencing hearing. She wrote that sending Petty to prison would severely impact their nearly 2-year-old son. “I have no doubt my son would be traumatized if his father would be taken out of his life,” she wrote. “I’ve known Kenneth Petty for over 20 years, when I first met him I knew he needed guidance… I’ve seen his genuine evolution first hand.”

Prior to the announcing of his sentencing, Petty expressed remorse for failing to register in California and breaking the law. “I take full responsibility for whatever happens today,” he said. “I’m ashamed, embarrassed and disrespected my wife’s brand. There are no excuses, I broke the law. I thank you for giving me the chance to speak, to apologize.”

Beyond the sentencing, Petty faces a lawsuit from Jennifer Hough, who Petty was convicted of attempting to rape in 1994. Hough sued both Petty and Minaj last year, alleging that they both “directly and indirectly intimidated, harassed and threatened [Hough] to recant her legitimate claim that Defendant Petty raped her.”

Minaj was dismissed from the suit earlier this year, but Petty is still named, and the suit is ongoing.