Nicki Minaj’s brother sentenced to 25 years to life for repeatedly raping his 11-year-old stepdaughter

Nicki Minaj’s brother has been sentenced to 25 years to life in a New York prison after he repeatedly raped his 11-year-old stepdaughter while her mother was at work.

Jelani Maraj, 41, was found guilty of ‘predatory sexual assault against a child and endangering the welfare of a child’ in 2017 and on Monday, Nassau County Supreme Court Judge, Robert McDonald, refused to give him a soft sentence.

It was despite his lawyer reading a 2016 letter his famous sister wrote in a bid to reduce his time behind bars, calling him the ‘most patient, gentle, genuine, giving selfless man I know’.

The judge said that his ‘view is that you ruined this child’.

‘You raped this child. You raped her over and over again,’ the judge added.

Maraj’s long sentence was for sexual assault but he was also sentenced to 364 days for the endangerment of a child.

Maraj had been held in custody, awaiting sentencing, since he was found guilty of the felony following a three-week trial.

The victim, now 14, testified in excruciating detail about sexual assaults that she said occurred as frequently as four times a week and sometimes twice a day.

She told the court she had become suicidal over the abuse.

‘I didn’t think I could make it through the day without an anxiety attack.’ she said. ‘I felt I had no voice,’ the victim, who is now his former stepdaughter, said Monday.

Maraj has maintained innocence and was stoic in the Long Island court room Monday.

Minaj’s brother told the court: ‘I’d like to apologize for the pain that I caused. I had an excessive drinking problem.

His lawyer David Schwartz said he plans to appeal.  He was arrested December 2015.

– Dailymail