Sister of ex-NBA player charged with threatening witness
NEW YORK (AP) — The sister of former NBA player Sebastian Telfair was accused on Monday of threatening a woman who testified against him at his New York City gun-possession trial.
Octavia Telfair was charged in federal court in Brooklyn with transmitting an interstate threat and released on $100,000 bail. She is also subject to home detention and must wear an ankle bracelet. There was no immediate response to an email seeking comment from her lawyer.
Sebastian Telfair — a once highly touted point guard with a disappointing NBA career and a history of brushes with the law — was convicted last month of carrying loaded guns in his pickup truck. Witnesses included his estranged wife and a girlfriend.
Shortly after the guilty verdict, Octavia Telfair made threatening phone calls to one of the witnesses in California, according to a criminal complaint that didn’t identify the alleged victim. The sister told the woman she either was “gonna die” or going to have to live with a “rearranged face,” the complaint says.
The Brooklyn-born Sebastian Telfair was a first-round draft pick out of high school in 2004. He started with the Portland Trail Blazers and spent time with the Boston Celtics, Minnesota Timberwolves and other teams before ending his career in China in 2014.
Telfair and a friend were arrested in 2007 after a traffic stop during which police found a loaded handgun in the vehicle. He pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a weapon and was sentenced to three years’ probation.
Telfair faces 3 ½ to 15 years in prison at his sentencing next month for his current gun case.
The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal.
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