Lee D’Avanzo, the husband of Mob Wives alum Drita D’Avanzo, was sentenced to more than five years in prison after pleading guilty to a gun charge, the New York Daily News reports.
Lee, 51, appeared in federal court in Brooklyn on Friday, August 7, for the courthouse’s first in-person hearing since the coronavirus pandemic began in March. Judge Rachel Kovner ordered him to serve 64 months behind bars for being a felon in possession of a weapon. Drita, 44, and the couple’s daughters, Aleeya and Gizelle, sat in the gallery during the hearing, and the former VH1 personality broke down in tears outside after Lee’s sentencing, according to the newspaper.
Lee previously pleaded guilty to the charge after narcotics officers discovered a pistol, a revolver and drugs including marijuana and Xanax in the D’Avanzo family’s Staten Island, New York, home in December 2019. Prosecutors had recommended 37 to 46 months in prison for Lee, but the judge upped the time due to his lengthy criminal history.
“He has six prior convictions, including two prior federal convictions,” Kovner said, per the Daily News. “He violated supervised release with a burglary offense, breaking into a bank and trying to get into a vault with high-speed drills. … Two prior sentences of approximately 60 months were not sufficient to deter the defendant from serious crimes.”
After the hearing, one of Lee and Drita’s daughters told the paper, “The sentence was unfair. It’s bulls–t.”
In July, Drita wrote a letter to the judge, calling him “an amazing father” who is “very much involved” their daughters’ lives.
“He is a family man and is missed!” she wrote at the time. “He has a family that is fully supporting him and hoping he comes home soon.”
Drita starred on all six seasons of Mob Wives, which aired from 2011 to 2016.
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