SALT LAKE CITY — Kentrell DeSean Gaulden, known by his stage name NBA YoungBoy, has been pardoned after his conviction in Utah.
The rapper, who was living in Huntsville and owns a home in Millcreek, took to Instagram on Wednesday to announce that he had been pardoned by President Donald Trump.
“I want to thank President Trump for granting me a pardon and giving me the opportunity to keep building — as a man, as a father and as an artist,” Gaulden wrote, in part. “This moment means a lot. It opens the door to a future I’ve worked hard for, and I am fully prepared to step into this.”
A White House spokesperson confirmed the pardon to KSL.com. Gaulden’s attorney, Drew Findling, told Rolling Stone that his client had been pardoned, although he hadn’t filed a pardon application.
Gaulden, now 25, was initially sentenced by a U.S. District Court judge in Utah to nearly two years in prison and five years of probation in December 2024, matching recommendations outlined after he pleaded guilty to unlawful transport of firearms earlier that year. The case originated in his home state of Louisiana before it was transferred to Utah.
He was credited with the time he spent in jail after police arrested him in connection with a prescription fraud ring case in April 2024. Gaulden also pleaded no contest to two counts of identity fraud, two counts of forgery and six counts of unlawful pharmacy conduct, all class A misdemeanors, and was ordered to pay a $25,000 fine in November as part of a plea deal with state prosecutors. He had initially faced 46 charges in the state.
His lawyer, Findling, also represented Trump in a 2022 election interference investigation in Georgia.
As NBA YoungBoy, Gaulden has amassed a large following, garnering 16.3 million monthly listeners on Spotify. He has also been nominated for three BET Hip Hop Awards and a Grammy Award, but the Utah cases were the latest in a string of legal woes he faced in other states.
Yet, family described a “whole other side” of the rapper during his sentencing hearing, calling him a “jokester” who had risen from poverty in Louisiana.
“I just want people to see Kentrell as a human, and there’s a whole other side to these things … he’s a human, and he has a good heart,” said Kyrie Garcia, his godmother.
The federal judge who sentenced Gaulden said he believed the rapper was in the process of turning his life around, adding that he was “going to have to walk the straight and narrow” in the future.
Gaulden also thanked Trump’s “pardon czar,” Alice Marie Johnson, and attorney Brittany Barnett as part of his pardon post on Wednesday.
“I’m grateful. I’m focused. I’m ready,” he added.
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