Morgan Wallen Could Get Years in Prison for Chair-Throwing Incident, Expert Says
The country artist was charged with three felony counts after being arrested at a Nashville bar.
Morgan Wallen is no stranger to controversy, and now, he's back in the news for his behavior yet again. During the early morning hours of April 8, the "Spin You Around" singer was charged with three felony counts of reckless endangerment and a misdemeanor for disorderly conduct after he hurled a chair from the rooftop of a six-story bar, per the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.
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The Grammy-nominated artist was later released on a $15,250 bond. And thankfully, no one was seriously injured by the flying piece of furniture. However, a legal expert says that Wallen could still face serious consequences—possibly including prison time—for the outburst.
Rither Alabre, a former New York prosecutor and current partner in the White Collar Defense & Investigation Practice Group at Blank Rome LLP, told Fox News Digital that Wallen could be facing up to six years in prison for the felony charges alone. Had those been classified as misdemeanors, the maximum jail time would be "11 months and 29 days," he noted.
Alabre explained that authorities upped Wallen's reckless endangerment count to a "class E felony," because the chair "landed close to police officers and other members of the public" and was thus classified as "a deadly weapon." According to arrest documents obtained by WKRN, the chair landed "approximately three feet away from two officers" and other bystanders. Security footage of the incident shows Wallen "lunging and throwing an object over the roof" of Chief's Bar in downtown Nashville, per the report.
"For the Class E felony charges of reckless endangerment, Wallen is facing not less than one year nor more than six years in prison," Alabre told Fox News Digital. It's "unlikely that the charges would be completely dismissed" given the video footage and witness accounts, he added.
As for what happens next, Alabre said Wallen's legal team will presumably "engage with prosecutors and try to resolve this matter with a plea to a lesser charge, either a misdemeanor or even possibly a lower charge where he would face little to no jail time."
"While these are serious allegations, since there are no reports of injuries to the public, Wallen's lawyer may ultimately be able to resolve this matter with a non-jail disposition such as probation, but it is too early to predict at this point what may be a realistic disposition," he explained.
It isn't clear yet what led up to the chair-throwing incident or whether anyone else was involved. However, several reports have noted that the arrest came on the heels of Wallen's ex-girlfriend Katie "KT" Smith's elopement with fiancée Luke Scornavacco. Smith is the mother of Wallen's 3-year-old son, Indigo Wilder.
On April 4, Smith revealed on Instagram that she and Scornavacco had obtained their marriage certificate, making it official.
"KT's marriage to Luke last week just crushed him," a source told the Daily Mail of Wallen.
The elopement happened a week after Scornavacco proposed.
"Of course [Wallen] knew they were engaged and eventually going to get married—but eloping just days after they got engaged?" the source added. "Morgan has never gotten over her even though he couldn't stay faithful to her. And now another man is going to be raising his son."
Wallen and Smith were in an on-again, off-again relationship from 2016 to 2019 and were even briefly engaged. They welcomed Indigo following their split.
"Whatever happened at that bar had to be reality hitting him in the face over losing the love of his life," the insider claimed to the Daily Mail.
Best Life has reached out to a representative for Wallen for comment on his arrest.
