Jussie Smollett was found guilty Thursday on five of the six charges against him after he claimed to be the victim of a hate crime.
Smollett was convicted of five charges of disorderly conduct and was acquitted on a sixth count of lying to a detective after saying he was attacked.
As the verdict was read, Smollett remained stoic and stared straight ahead. He was later seen embracing his siblings after the verdict.
The judge said he will order a pre-sentencing investigation to take place. Smollett’s defense attorney, Nenye Uche, said the actor will fight the conviction.
“He’s committed to clearing his name, and he’s 100 percent confident that he’s going to get cleared by the appellate court,” Uche claimed.
“Unfortunately, that’s not the route we wanted but sometimes that’s the route that you have to take to win, especially a case where we remain 100 percent confident in our client’s innocence,” he continued.
Special prosecutor Dan Webb told the media that Smollett “faked a hate crime and then lied to the police about it and then compounded his crimes by lying to the jury during the course of this trial and insulting their intelligence”.
“That verdict is a resounding message by the jury that in fact Mr. Smollett did exactly what we said he did,” Webb added.
The Osundairo brothers gave hours-long testimonies about meeting with Smollett and the plan for a “dry run”. Abimbola said Smollett “explained that he wanted me to fake beat him up”.
The attorney for the Osundairo brothers, Gloria Rodriguez, spoke to the media after the verdict, saying her clients “could not be more thrilled”.
Rodriguez thanked Webb for taking the case when “nobody wanted this case. None of the other state’s attorneys wanted this case. None of the other appellate state’s attorneys in the state of Illinois wanted this case”.
While Smollett faces a prison sentence of up to three years, it is possible he will be placed on probation and ordered to perform community service.
Uche said their team is confident “he’s going to be cleared of all, all accusations on all charges. The verdict is inconsistent”.
