Nicki Minaj’s Husband Pleads Guilty to Failure to Register as Sex Offender in California

Nicki Minaj’s husband Kenneth Petty has pled guilty to failure to register as a sex offender in California.

The 43-year-old is already registered in the state of New York — but not in California, where he lives.

On Thursday, he entered his plea with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California via virtual hearing, PEOPLE reported.

He could face a maximum of ten years in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release; he is due to be sentenced on January 24.

In 1995, Petty was convicted of first-degree attempted rape of a 16-year-old girl, when he too was 16. He served four years in prison, and was later registered as a sex offender in NY.

But after a traffic stop in Beverly Hills in November of 2019, police determined he was registered in NY but not CA. He was subsequently indicted for failing to register.

According to TMZ, Petty sued the State of New York and its Criminal Justice Services division in August to have his name removed from the New York’s Sex Offender Registry, claiming he never got the chance to legally challenge certain aspects of his sex offender status.

The same day he entered his latest plea, Petty’s wife revealed she was pulling out of Sunday’s MTV VMAs, despite never having been on the confirmed list of performers in the first place. She did not say why.

When a fan asked on Twitter if she would be performing, she retweeted the post and replied: “I just pulled out. I’ll explain why another day. But I love those guys at MTV. thank you Bruce. I love you so much. Next year we there baby.”

Childhood friends Minaj and Petty started dating in December 2018, announcing they had officially married the following October. They share a one-year-old son — nicknamed “Papa Bear” — whose named they have not yet revealed.