Dave Chappelle‘s attacker at the Hollywood Bowl earlier this year has reportedly been sentenced to jail time.
According to Deadline, 24-year-old Isaiah Lee pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor count each of battery and entering a restricted area during a live event on Wednesday (December 14).
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Lee was sentenced to 270 days in county jail, the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office revealed.
Dave Chappelle was performing at Los Angeles’ Netflix Is A Joke Fest in May when Lee stormed onto the stage and spectacularly tackled the comedian to the ground.
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Lee admitted that he was carrying a replica handgun armed with a retractable knife, but claimed he didn’t have the weapon out when he charged the stage.
Security quickly subdued Lee and he was arrested by the LAPD. Chappelle was uninjured and able to finish the show. “That was a trans man,” he joked to the crowd after the attack.
Other performers at the festival included Black Star, Busta Rhymes, Chris Rock, Jon Stewart and Jeff Ross.
Dave Chappelle later claimed he spoke to the attacker before he was taken away by the paramedics, with the comedian alleging Lee told him he carried out the attack to raise awareness for his grandmother in Brooklyn after she was displaced from her home due to gentrification.
But during an interview inside jail, Lee said the attack was triggered by Chappelle’s jokes about transgender and homeless people.
Chappelle’s lawyer previously told Rolling Stone he wanted Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón to reconsider and file felony charges for the incident.
“Mr. Chappelle wants this case charged as a felony,” he said in a statement at the time. “Entertainers in Los Angeles need to know that the justice system will protect them on stage.”
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Isaiah Lee’s plea came roughly one-and-a-half months after a judge rejected the defense’s request for a diversion program that could have resulted in the dismissal of the charges.
The man is set to return to court on January 19 for an unrelated attempted murder charge, in which he’s alleged to have stabbed his roommate at a transitional housing facility in December 2021.
