Chicago rapper pleads not guilty to leaving gun in rideshare vehicle in Queens
BROOKLYN (WABC) -- Chicago rapper Lil Zay Osama pleaded not guilty Wednesday to an indictment charging him with possession of a machine gun and possession of an unregistered firearm after he allegedly left a Glock with a switch inside a rideshare vehicle.
The rapper, whose real name is Isaiah Dukes, 26, was ordered detained after federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said he is a danger, a flight risk "and no combination of conditions can mitigate these risks."
According to prosecutors, in September 2022 a rideshare driver picked up Dukes at a hotel in Manhattan and drove him to a recording studio in Queens. Sometime during the trip the driver noticed the Glock model 22 .40 caliber pistol with a switch, a small device that when affixed to the back of a handgun converts the firearm into a fully automatic weapon.
After dropping off Dukes the driver parked a short distance away and, while cleaning the backseat of his vehicle, saw he had left the gun in the car, the indictment said.
Lil Zay Osama was arrested in 2022 but the case was dismissed. Prosecutors revived it after Dukes was arrested in December outside Chicago following a high-speed chase. Police in Illinois found a loaded Glock 29 with a laser, extended magazine and a switch along with a loaded Glock 19 with a fifty-round drum magazine and defaced serial number.
At the time of his arrest in Illinois, the defendant was wearing a necklace alleged to be valued at approximately $90,000 and to be connected to an armed robbery in New York.
Dukes is also facing pending charges in Wisconsin for carrying a handgun with a defaced serial number, "yet another occasion on which the defendant is alleged to have unlawfully possessed a firearm," prosecutors said.
"These cases-many of which involve firearms and the trajectory of which suggest a dangerous escalation-demonstrate that the defendant has little regard for the law."
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