A judge yesterday finally set a trial date for rapper Ja Rule, three years after his arrest for gun possession.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Richard Carruthers decided on an Aug. 18 date, and also denied the rapper’s request for a pretrial hearing to challenge the science that investigators used to link him to the gun through DNA.
Prosecutors say a microscopic amount Ja Rule’s DNA was recovered from the .40-caliber unlicensed handgun found in his luxury Maybach car after a 2007 concert at the Beacon Theatre on the Upper West Side.
Defense lawyer Stacey Richman said the sample was too small to reliably test, and added she’ll ask the judge to reconsider.
Ja Rule — real name Jeff Atkins — was at a movie shoot in Los Angeles and did not attend the hearing. Richman said Ja Rule’s film and performance schedules may preclude an August trial.