After her first-ever performance on the ESSENCE Festival of Concert stage (July 4), Nicki Minaj had little time to celebrate. Her husband, Kenneth Petty, was sentenced to house arrest on Wednesday, July 6 for failure to register as a sex offender.
According to the representative for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, Petty was also sentenced to three years probation and was fined $55,000.
Under Penal Code 290 in the Sex Offender Registration Act, California requires that people convicted of sex crimes must register as sex offenders with the local law enforcement agency annually within five days of their birthday and within five days upon moving residencies.
Following his sentence, Nicki Minaj didn’t hesitate to post pictures of her hubby and nearly two-year-old son adding heart-eyes and heart emojis in the caption. Seemingly coming off as her usual unbothered self, Nicki’s fans didn’t seem to care about Kenneth’s conviction and left her IG post with supporting comments.
Petty was convicted of first-degree attempted rape of a 16-year-old girl back in 1995. As a result, he spent four years behind bars. However, this isn’t the last time Kenneth Petty would be criminally charged. In 2006, Petty was charged with first-degree manslaughter (due to gang-related activity) and was, yet again, met with prison bars until he was released in 2013.
Once the couple moved from New York to California, Petty faced criminal charges after failing to register as a sex offender for the first time in March 2020. After going on a deep dive on Minaj’s Instagram to approximately the same date of Kenneth Petty’s conviction, she seemed to have either deleted posts or didn’t post until a couple of months after he wasn’t trending on social media.
Whatever her intentions may be following her new Instagram post, Nicki Minaj surely wants to portray her husband in a positive light.