Rapper Boosie Badazz pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, authorities said.
The charge stemmed from an arrest while he was in San Diego to shoot a music video and perform at a Gaslamp Quarter nightclub.
The rapper, 42, whose real name is Torence Ivy Hatch Jr., was arrested in Chollas View in May 2023 after police searched a vehicle he was riding in and found two guns.
San Diego police said at the time that Hatch was spotted in a social media video with a gun in his waistband. Police then used a helicopter to track down his vehicle, after which officers conducted a traffic stop and discovered the firearms.
Hatch posted on X earlier this month about pleading guilty, writing, “just accepted a plea from the federal government on my gun case.”
Hatch was initially charged by the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office. His defense attorneys have stated that Hatch intended to plead guilty and was expected to be sentenced to probation, but the state’s case was dismissed before that plea deal could be reached.
Federal prosecutors then took up the case.
JUST ACCEPTED A PLEA FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ON MY GUN
— Boosie BadAzz (@BOOSIEOFFICIAL) August 4, 2025
CASE. I THOUGHT THIS CASE WAS OVER N I WAS GOING TO GET ON WITH MY LIFE BUT “GOD DONT MAKE MISTAKES “ N IM TIRED OF FIGHTING‼️TALKED TO MY FAMILY N THIS IS THE RIGHT DECISION💯TO ALL MY FANS ACROSS THE WORLD SAY A PRAYER…
U.S. District Judge Cathy Bencivengo, who is slated to sentence Hatch in November, dismissed the case last year following a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that said it was unconstitutional to prohibit convicted felons who served sentences for nonviolent drug offenses from possessing firearms.
But a larger panel of the 9th Circuit overturned its earlier ruling, finding that banning felons from possessing firearms does not violate the Constitution.
Hatch was previously convicted in Louisiana of marijuana possession. He was also indicted in an alleged murder-for-hire plot, but was acquitted by a Baton Rouge jury in 2012.
San Diego federal prosecutors re-filed the charges against Hatch a short time after the case was dismissed.
