Taxstone will be spending just over three more years in prison, on top of his existing 35-year sentence.
That was the decision made on Friday (May 29) in a Brooklyn federal court, as the once-successful podcaster was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison for his role masterminding a plan to sneak contraband, including drugs and a weapon, into jail where he was then incarcerated.
The sentence will run consecutively to his state sentence, meaning that the time will be in addition to the 35 years he received for manslaughter for a fatal shooting during a 2016 T.I. concert in Manhattan.
Taxstone (real name Daryl Campbell) orchestrated the contraband scheme while he was held at Brooklyn’s MDC. The plan involved bringing in a rope made up of pieces of paper covered in a synthetic cannabinoid, over 100 strips of a synthetic opioid, approximately 27 bags of marijuana, over 400 cigarettes, two lighters, a scalpel, and a cell-phone charging cord and plug. The podcaster pled guilty to one count of Conspiracy to Provide and Possess Contraband in a Prison last September.
Campbell appeared in court on Friday in a tan prison jumpsuit, sporting a long beard. He spent part of the hearing leaning back in his chair and talking to his attorney and paralegal, a demeanor that got harshly criticized by Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis at the end of the sentencing hearing.
"You really don’t take this very seriously, sir," the judge said. When Campbell said something in response, Judge Garaufis said that he should "keep quiet, and then you can go back to your prison cell."
"You almost act as if it’s an imposition to be here," the judge continued. "If you’re so smart, you ought to get with the program."
When he had a chance to address Judge Garaufis directly, Campbell was alternately apologetic and defiant. He admitted to heading up the contraband scheme ("I knew what I was doing when I did it.") However, he said he did it in order to make money to pay for attorneys to appeal his manslaughter conviction, which he said was unjust.
He also pointed out that it was much harder for him to fight that case in the federal system, where he has been held for the past several years, than in state prison.
"I feel like I would die in the federal system," he said, explaining that he had seen a fellow inmate die just days before the man was scheduled to be released.
"I ended up in jail because someone was trying to kill me," Campbell said of the shooting at the T.I. show. "I’m not supposed to be in prison. I’m not guilty for my state crime."
Campbell’s attorney, Kenneth Montgomery, had asked for a 25-30 month sentence for his client, and that it run concurrently (at the same time as) his client’s 35-year sentence in state prison for manslaughter in the 2016 killing of Troy Ave’s late bodyguard, Ronald "Banga" McPhatter, at Manhattan’s Irving Plaza. Prosecutors asked for a 33-month sentence, but that it run consecutively to the state sentence.
Taxstone was also sentenced to 115 months in 2024 on federal gun charges related to the Irving Plaza incident, but that time runs concurrently with his state sentence.
Montgomery argued in a sentencing memo earlier this year that his client’s "incredibly difficult circumstances" growing up in East New York, Brooklyn should be taken into account when considering Friday's sentence, including the murder of the podcaster’s father when Campbell was just eight years old. That crime, Montgomery wrote in a sentencing memo earlier this year, caused Campbell to lose his "childhood innocence."
On Friday, prosecutors reiterated their earlier demand that Campbell’s sentence run consecutively to the long state sentence. Prosecutor Russell Noble emphasized that Campbell was "the leader and the organizer" of the contraband scheme, and that the podcaster profited from it, receiving payments ranging in amounts from $25 to $3,000.
He also took issue with Montgomery’s portrayal of Campbell as someone who helped young people stay away from gangs. In fact, Noble said, Campbell’s leadership in the scheme had gotten four other people, all younger than him, convicted.
When issuing his sentence, Judge Garaufis said that even though the actual smuggling attempt was almost comically unsuccessful (he called it "a Keystone Kops situation"), bringing in drugs and weapons to a jail means that "you’re putting many, many people at risk."
He explained that he was making the sentence consecutive, rather than concurrent, in order to send a message: "The most important thing you can do is not make things worse for everybody."
After the hearing, Montgomery told Complex: "I look forward to Mr. Campbell getting home one day."
Taxstone started his Tax Season podcast in 2015, and it quickly became a success. He showcased influential guests including Russell Simmons, Fat Joe, Black Thought, Jeezy, and more. But a simmering beef with Troy Ave came to a head in 2016 when the two met backstage at a T.I. concert at NYC’s Irving Plaza.
There was a confrontation, and Campbell shot and killed Ronald "Banga" McPhatter, Troy Ave’s friend and bodyguard. [Kenneth Montgomery disputed that assessment on Friday, saying that Campbell and Troy Ave were struggling over the weapon].
Taxstone was found guilty of manslaughter in March, 2023 and sentenced to 35 years in prison the following June. He said on Friday that he is appealing the decision.
