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Chris Brown won't have to serve prison time after he received his sentence for his assault case in the U.K.
On Monday morning, October 26, Judge Tony Baumgartner held a sentencing hearing for the Grammy Award-winning singer in London. The judge ordered him to serve eight months behind bars. Brown's sentence is suspended for 12 months, which means he won't have to report to prison unless he gets into trouble again.
“I take account of your employment and long-established career in music," Judge Baumgartner told the singer, per Variety. "Your fame, commercial success and professional standing do not entitle you to special treatment. The law applies equally to everyone.”
The R&B singer pleaded guilty to affray over the summer, which is defined as "using or threatening unlawful physical violence in a way that causes a reasonable person at the scene to fear for their safety." The charge stems from a brawl Brown and his co-defendant Omololu Akinlolu, also known as Florida rapper "HoodBaby" who serves as the singer's vocal coach, were allegedly involved in a brawl that happened at a London nightclub in 2023. Akinlolu also received a suspended sentence.
“This was a vicious and unprovoked attack by Brown and Akinlolu in a crowded nightclub where Brown used a glass bottle as a weapon to strike the victim’s head twice,” Claire Campbell, a senior prosecutor at CPS London South, said after the two were convicted. “This kind of violence is entirely unacceptable, and the Crown Prosecution Service will work tirelessly – with the police and partners across the criminal justice system – to pursue cases like this, and prove that no one is above the law.”
Brown was charged last year after he and Akinlolu were accused of violently attacking music producer Abe Diaw at the TAPE Nightclub in London. In February 2023, Diaw claimed Brown hit him in the head several times with a bottle of Don Julio 1942 tequila. After his knees buckled, Diaw alleged Brown punched and kicked him while he was on the ground. He sought medical treatment at a hospital after the unprovoked attack and claimed he needed crutches to walk while he recovered. The singer was arrested in the U.K. last May, just before he was scheduled to begin his "Breezy Bowl XX World Tour" there.