Celebs Who Are Stuck In Prison For Life

Having the adoration and attention of the public seems to make some celebrity types feel like they can get away with all kinds of bad behavior, from trash-talking whomever they feel like in the press to straight-up breaking the law. However, there are plenty of very famous people who have spent some time in the pokey, if even for a few days, and yet more celebrities who have actually done (or are still doing) hard time in prison. 

Yes, even if you're super-famous, doing the crime usually means doing the time — and when that crime is of the serious variety, well, the sentence is going to be just as serious. A goodly number of actors, musicians, and athletes are in the "Big House" right now, and today, we'll be looking at a few who are unlikely in the extreme to ever get out. A word of warning: we'll be discussing people who have been convicted of some very disturbing crimes, so proceed with caution.

Danny Masterson was most well-known for a single credit, but it was a doozy: between 1998 and 2006, he portrayed cynical-stoner-with-a-heart-of-gold Steven Hyde as part of the ensemble cast of the beloved sitcom "That '70s Show." It was pretty much smack in the middle of that series' run, though, that he committed the crimes that would later land him in prison for the rest of his life — the drugging and sexual assault of two different women at his home between 2001 and 2003.

Multiple women came forward about Masterson's crimes in 2017, initiating an investigation that quickly caused the actor to be dropped from the Netflix dramedy "The Ranch," on which he co-starred with his former "That '70s Show" cohort Ashton Kutcher. While some of the cases were dropped, two of them decidedly stuck, and the victims' harrowing testimony at his eight-month-long trial resulted in Masterson being convicted on two counts of rape in May 2023. Just over three months later, the actor was slapped with an eye-watering sentence of 30 years to life, a sentence which he began serving at North Kern State Prison in Delano, California, on December 27, 2023. 

From what we know about Danny Masterson's life in prison, his lifestyle these days is a far cry from that of his former life as a star of one of the most popular sitcoms ever — and while it's unfortunate that it took his victims so long to obtain justice, his punishment certainly fits his crimes.

Harvey Weinstein was one of the most prolific and successful film producers in history; his fingerprints are on far too many films to list here, including classics such as "Pulp Fiction," "Scream," and "Gangs of New York." Operating from a position of immense power in Hollywood, he seemed to think he could just smooth it all over when, in October 2017, allegations of inappropriate behavior — mostly offering to advance the careers of young actresses in return for "massages" and the like — began to surface. In a statement, he related that he knew he had "caused a lot of pain" and expressed his remorse, but it was not enough.

At this time, the #MeToo movement was starting to snowball and, perhaps emboldened by that circumstance, a slew of additional women began to come forward. Among them were such high-profile actresses as Salma Hayek, Rose McGowan, and Ashley Judd; within a couple months, Weinstein had been banned for life from the Producers Guild of America and fired from the board of the company bearing his name. 

In 2019, Weinstein was charged in New York and convicted in 2020 of third-degree rape, receiving a 23-year sentence; in 2022, he was convicted of similar crimes in California, and slapped with an additional 16 years. The New York sentence was overturned in 2024, but as of this writing, the 72-year-old — who has faced an avalanche of health problems since his imprisonment — is expected to be in custody for the remainder of his life.

Canadian actor Ryan Grantham had been in the business from a young age, making appearances in projects like the 2010 film "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," and beginning in his teens, he began to land some pretty high-profile roles. He earned guest spots on the hit series "Supernatural" and "Riverdale," and he seemed poised for greater success — until the day he threw away his career — and life — in shocking fashion.

In March 2020, Grantham — who had been silently dealing with profound mental health issues, and making plans to carry out acts of violence at his old school and against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — approached his mother from behind as she sat playing piano in their Vancouver-area home, and shot her in the back of the head with a .22 caliber pistol. Two days later, he packed up his car with guns, ammunition, and Molotov cocktails, and headed off to carry out his deadly plans — but before he got too far, his conscience apparently got the better of him. 

Grantham returned to Vancouver and turned himself in to authorities, and two years later, he was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum 14 years of parole ineligibility for the crime. By the final day of Grantham's trial, the weight of his actions appeared to have settled in. Addressing the court, he said, "I cannot explain or justify my actions. I have no excuse ... It hurts me to think about how badly I've wasted my life" (via CBC).

Michael Jace was best-known for playing cops and authority figures, which included his most prominent role as Officer Julien Lowe on "The Shield," the groundbreaking FX cop drama that ran for seven seasons between 2002 and 2008. Within just a few years after that series ended, though, the steady acting work had largely dried up for Jace; he declared bankruptcy in 2011, and by 2014, he had defaulted on the mortgage payment for the home he shared with his wife, April, and their two young sons. It was in that home, in April 2014, that the unthinkable occurred.

Distraught that April was talking divorce and apparently convinced she was seeing another man, Jace shot her in the back as she arrived at the home in front of their boys, ages 8 and 5; as she lay on the floor, he shot her twice more, then called 911 to report what he had done. April Jace died of her injuries, and at trial in 2016, Michael Jace's fate was largely sealed by the heartbreaking testimony of his older son, who told the jury that his father had told his mother to "run to heaven" before pulling the trigger. In June of that year, Michael Jace was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison; it is highly unlikely that the 62-year-old will ever walk free again.

Corey "C-Murder" Miller had his ticket to success in rap music punched early, when his older brother — Percy "Master P" Miller, one of the richest rappers in the world — began to find success with his No Limit Records label. Determined to get his brothers as far away from the violence of the New Orleans projects as he could, Master P made C-Murder and his other brother, Vyshonn "Silkk the Shocker" Miller, centerpiece performers of his fledgling stable of artists — but despite Gold-selling success and an increasingly high profile, Corey Miller simply could not stay away from trouble.

A 2001 incident in which Miller discharged a gun outside a nightclub landed him in legal hot water, but that was just the beginning. In January 2002, Miller found himself in another altercation at a New Orleans club; during the scuffle, he fired a shot, striking 16-year-old Steve Thomas in the chest. Thomas died at the scene, and Miller was tried twice; a 2003 trial resulted in a mandatory life sentence, but the conviction was overturned due to the failure of the prosecution to disclose the criminal pasts of several witnesses. 

Miller was retried in 2009, and — largely on the strength of testimony from a bouncer who had helped convict him the first time — he was again sentenced to life. In recent years, celebrities such as Kim Kardashian have publicly lobbied for authorities to take a new look at his case — but in 2023, a federal judge upheld Miller's conviction.

[Featured image by Justauserr via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 3.0]

Reality shows focusing on niche or unconventional businesses can nearly always attract enough of an audience to justify their budgets, and for five seasons beginning in 2011, Discovery Channel's "Sons of Guns" was must-see TV for firearm aficionados. The series put the spotlight on Will Hayden, the owner of Red Jacket Firearms; the Baton Rouge, Louisiana shop employed a phalanx of gunsmiths and weapons experts to buy, sell, trade, and customize pretty much anything lethal under the sun. In 2014, though, the series was unceremoniously canceled when Hayden was arrested for a horrifying crime — the repeated rapes of two preteen girls, nearly two decades apart.

Hayden was tried and convicted in 2017, receiving life in prison plus 40 years, with the judge also stipulating that there would be no opportunity for parole or any other form of early release. Just two months later, Hayden pleaded no contest to similar charges in a different parish, one involving one of his victims in the earlier case — and the other involving his own daughter Stephanie, who publicly claimed that her father had attempted to assault her in her bedroom roughly 20 years prior. An additional life sentence was imposed in that case, and in 2019, Hayden's appeal in the first case was denied.

NFL fans might recognize Eric Naposki from his stints with the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts in the late '80s. After his brush with fame, the former linebacker was working security at a nightclub when he met Nanette Packard, a young mother of three, with whom he began a relationship. There was just one problem: Packard was engaged to and living with wealthy entrepreneur William McLaughlin, who simply knew Naposki as a "friend" of his fiance. Packard had previously been convicted of writing bad checks in McLaughlin's name, and after becoming involved with Naposki, authorities say she hatched another plot: to kill her fiance, collect insurance money, and live rent-free in his lavish beach house, as stipulated in his will. 

In December 1994, Naposki used a key left for him by Packard to enter the beach house and shoot McLaughlin to death in his kitchen. Amazingly, the crime remained unsolved for 15 years — but in 2009, Naposki and Packard (who were no longer together by this time) were arrested after cold case investigators were able to build a case against them. Both were slapped with life sentences with no chance of parole, and they took the novel tack of blaming each other — Packard implying that Naposki might have killed McLaughlin on his own, and Naposki claiming that Packard arranged the murder with an unidentified third party.

There are a number of rappers who are currently in prison, but only one to have been slapped with 12 life sentences, plus 105 years for good measure — Ronald "Ra Diggs" Herron, whose burgeoning rap career appears to have been little more than a front for his position at the top of the "Murderous Mad Dawgs" Blood gang, which supplied hard drugs to several Brooklyn neighborhoods. Herron was convicted in 2015 of personally killing three people connected to the drug trade, and the case was somewhat controversial due to the fact that some of his own rap lyrics were used as evidence against him, many of which pretty much amounted to blow-by-blow accounts of his crimes.

At his sentencing, Herron accused the judge and prosecutors of manufacturing a case against him, while Judge Nicholas Garaufis fired back that Herron's obvious intelligence was part of the reason for his harsh sentence. "You personally exacerbated one of your community's greatest blights," Garaufis said. "You could have done something different. Instead you chose to lead a criminal organization and commit violent robbery and murder" (via The New York Times). Herron appealed the ruling, claiming that the use of his lyrics as evidence constituted a violation of his rights, but the appeals court wasn't buying it — ruling that any First Amendment considerations were decisively outweighed by the fact that lyrics in question were, well, pretty damning.

The OWN reality show "Welcome to Sweetie Pie's" indeed struck a sweet spot with viewers, running for nine seasons between 2011 and 2018. It focused on a former backup singer for Ike and Tina Turner, Robbie Montgomery, who pivoted to becoming a soul food restauranteur after her music career ended, and the colorful cast of family and friends who helped her run the business. A couple of years before the series ended, Montgomery's 21-year-old grandson, Andre Montgomery Jr., was tragically killed in a shooting in St. Louis. The real tragedy, though, was yet to be known.

In 2020, Tim Norman — Montgomery's son and another member of the cast — was arrested and charged with murder-for-hire in the death of Montgomery, along with a pair of accomplices: Terica Ellis, an exotic dancer, and Travell Hill, who confessed to shooting Montgomery after Ellis lured him out of his home. The reason for the crime was simple: Norman had taken out a life insurance policy on Montgomery, and he stood to gain nearly half a million dollars in the event of his death. At trial in 2023, the evidence — including cell phone activity and the testimony of Ellis and Hill — was more than enough to convict Norman, and he was slapped with a life sentence. Ellis received three years, and Hill was sent to the Big House for 32 years.

Harrison Norris, Jr. is best-known to fans of WCW Wrestling as "Hardbody Harrison," who in the '90s appeared in a number of matches as a "jobber," a wrestler whose purpose it is to basically get their rear ends handed to them by the stars of the event. Harrison's physique was, of course, his calling card, but the tragic truth about the life of a pro wrestler is that the career is often not built to last. After Norris' wrestling career ended, he went on to win the FX competition series "Toughman" in 2000 — but behind the scenes, he was known to the women he preyed upon as a walking nightmare.

Norris was arrested in 2007 to face shocking allegations: that he lured women to live with him, his wife, and one of his children as trainees who could potentially one day land lucrative pro wrestling contracts. Instead, he held them as virtual captives, creating never-ending debt to him for failure to properly perform chores or tasks — and collecting on that debt by forcing them into prostitution. He kept them in line with threats of violence, and the fact that he transported them across state lines on occasion was enough for him to be prosecuted under a Federal anti-human trafficking law that had been passed seven years earlier. In November 2007, Norris was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Tackle Keith Wright was signed by the Houston Texans out of college in 2003, and he bounced around to several teams before retiring in 2006. It was the sort of lackluster career after which most ex-footballers would have opened themselves up a sports bar or perhaps gone into security — but not Wright. In 2011, he was arrested in Sacramento, California, on suspicion of taking part in a string of home invasion robberies in the area — but that was just the tip of the iceberg with respect to the crimes of which he would eventually be found guilty.

Prosecutors alleged that Wright did more than just mastermind the robberies, where victims were threatened with a gun to get them to give up money and property. During one of the robberies, he kidnapped and sexually assaulted one of his female victims before making her drive him around town, withdrawing money from two banks. Unfortunately for Wright, he left behind DNA evidence for the authorities, and his DNA profile was logged in a database thanks to a previous arrest. In November 2012, Wright was convicted of a whopping 19 different charges, landing him a sentence specifically engineered to make sure that he never walks free again: 114 years to life, plus an additional 120 years and eight months.

If you or anyone you know may be the victim of child abuse or sexual assault or needs help with addiction issues, contact the relevant resources below:

• The Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.

• The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

• The Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.