Man who posed with guns, drugs in rap video gets 4 years in federal prison

A Kansas man seen in a music video with marijuana and a collection of firearms was sentenced Monday in federal court.

Shundell Cortez Barkus, 23, of Wichita, was sentenced to 48 months imprisonment followed by two years supervised release by U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten, according to an announcement by the Department of Justice.

As detailed in court documents, Barkus and five others, De’Adrian Johnson, Mario Smith, Imanuel Norwood, Keandre Summers and Dondre Broom, appeared in a rap video filmed in last January. In the video, the men puffed on weed and handled numerous firearms. In a search of the residence used for the filming location two weeks later, police recovered 2.5-pounds of marijuana and almost a dozen guns, many of which matched those used in the video.

Among the 11 guns recovered were a Springfield XD .45 ACP pistol, a Taurus .40-caliber, an AD-TEK Timberwolf .223 rifle, a MAK-90 rifle, several revolvers, a Mossberg shotgun and a Hi-Point .45, all listed as forfeited in court proceedings.

Besides Barkus who entered into a guilty plea in January to unlawful possession of a firearm by a user of controlled substances, Broom and Johnson have already been sentenced to four years and six months, respectively. Smith is set for sentencing in June, while Norwood and Summers have yet to be tried.

The Kansas case is not the first time the feds have secured a win in court on aspiring rappers with illegally possessed weapons this year. In February, a federal judge gave Ricardo Burris, 31, who performs under the name “Nation,” 15 years after he pleaded guilty to one count of illegal possession of a firearm by a felon, and one count of distribution of a controlled substance. Burris– who had been arrested more than 50 times, had multiple felonies under his belt and was a prohibited from possessing a firearm under federal law– appeared in a 2016 music video entitled With That during which he displayed at times at least two different handguns.

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