Ashanti Tormentor Convicted Of Felony Stalking After Forcing Singer To Take Stand


A man by the name of Devar Hurd has been stalking Ashanti and her family for nearly 10 years and has now been convicted of felony stalking by jury during a trial in Manhattan.

The 37-year-old shook his head while the verdict was read. The jury was comprised of five women and seven men and the deliberations for the case lasted one full day before arriving at the final decision. The deliberations began Thursday afternoon in the Manhattan Supreme Court.

The convicted faces up to four years prison time and has already been in prison since 2013 in connection to the Ashanti case, which means Hurd may be released soon seeing as he’s already served time prior to conviction. Sentencing will take place on March 31,

The New York Daily News shares the process that has brought about the guilty verdict.

“This is the third attempt to convict him on the top count in his current indictment. His first trial in 2014 resulted in a mistrial because a juror got sick during deliberations. In October, he was convicted on several counts including criminal contempt but the jury could not reach a consensus on the top count.”

Hurd suffers from delusions and was convinced that he actually had a relationship with the singer. He was first convicted of stalking Ashanti back in 2009. Violations after conviction led to more strict action. The publication outlines reasons for taking the case further.

“Prosecutors proved he was at several events attended by Ashanti’s younger sister and that he tweeted at Ashanti hundreds of times in violation of strict orders of protection that were issued after the first conviction.”

Hurd gave a closing statement during which he told the jury that “sending sexually explicit stuff was not a crime [and that] excessive tweeting was not stalking.” Additionally, he added that Ashanti could have avoided him by simply hitting “block.”

Ashanti was not present for the verdict or the hearing. The convicted stalker could have pleaded guilty and been released for time served, but he would not plead guilty and instead took the case to a full trial. It’s suspected he did so for the purpose of torturing Ashanti once again by forcing her to take the stand.

Hurd represented himself during the trial and insisted on cross-examining Ashanti on the stand on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the Daily Mail shares, the singer had to face a cross-examination from Hurd as he “confronted her with the lewd text messages and tweets he had sent her.”

Hurd asked Ashanti to explain why he’s having to face felony stalking charges for tweeting messages to her back in 2013. Ashanti responded and communicated her wish for him to simply stop,

“You continuously tweeted over and over again disgusting, derogatory, disrespectful things to me after you had already gone to jail for doing the same thing. I wish you to stop. I just wish you to stop.”

Hurd also claimed the two were involved in a romantic relationship and insists that because the star did not block him on Twitter, he is not guilty. He also read out tweets and messages he had sent that were of a lewd nature. Hurd then stated, “I know how you are when it comes to our sex life… us f****** is very emotional on both ends,” obviously still delusional and of the belief that he and Ashanti actually had a physical relationship.

[Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images]

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