Bieber's friend gets probation in drug case

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

photo Rapper Lil Za, right, leaves Los Angeles Superior Court with his attorney, Shawn Holley, after his arraignment today.

LOS ANGELES - An aspiring rapper who was arrested during a search of Justin Bieber's mansion pleaded no contest Wednesday to felony possession of ecstasy and was sentenced to probation and community service.

Xavier Domonique Smith, who goes by the name Lil Za, was also ordered into a drug treatment program and fined $1,000 for breaking a jail telephone while in custody, Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office spokesman Ricardo Santiago said.

Smith was sentenced to three years of probation, but the felony conviction can be reduced to a misdemeanor if he successfully completes his sentence, which also requires him to repay the sheriff's department $600 for the broken phone.

Smith, 20, was arrested in January after deputies said they found him with drugs while searching Bieber's mansion for evidence in an egg-tossing vandalism case. Prosecutors are still considering whether to charge Bieber with vandalism.

In addition to searching the mansion in Calabasas, detectives also have served a search warrant on the photo-sharing site Instagram to try to match images of the pop singer's clothing with surveillance footage of the egg attack.

The images of his clothing were seized from Bieber's home during the Jan. 14 search.