Celebs Who Have Children Behind Bars Right Now

They say that when you're a celebrity, there's no such thing as bad publicity. But that can't possibly apply to news that your child got sentenced to hard time, right? No celebrity wants to be associated with that; moreover, no parent wants to see child behind bars, period.

On top of that, whenever a wealthy person does a crime and gets locked up, the rest of the world shakes their heads in disbelief. You're rich. Why act out? But, as you'll see from the entries on this list, the children of celebrities, just like the rest of the world, are sometimes plagued by issues that lead to a crime, such as addiction or mental illness. Of course, some of these people just made terrible decisions — Yes, rich people make those, too.

And while it seems that, at times, the justice system gives an unfair pass to celebs accused of crimes thanks to LA County Jail's notorious "overcrowding situation," that's not always the case. For the famous offspring on this list, not only did their crimes not go unpunished, they're still in the slammer as of this writing. 

Here are the celebs who have children in jail right now.

The Judd family has some demons. The family matriarch, Naomi Judd, continues to face mental health issues and admits to her faults as a mother. Her daughters, Wynonna and Ashley, experienced their own challenges as well. Ashley completed a rehab program for depression, among other things, and Wynonna's battled addiction and law-breaking ex-husbands. But the Judd troubles appear to go one generation further now.

According to Radar Online, Grace Pauline Kelley, the daughter of Wynonna, is now staring down eight years in prison for violating probation. In 2015, Kelley was nabbed by police for "promotion of meth manufacture." The following year, she was arrested again and charged with possession of meth, possession of unlawful drug paraphernalia, and evading arrest. After pleading guilty to a lesser charge, Kelley was sentenced to just shy of a year in jail, but that sentence was allowed to be served on probation granted she served a 30-day jail term. Kelley was also given a four-year sentence for evading arrest, but the courts allowed that time to be served on probation as well, as long as the defendant completed a 180-day rehab stint. 

Sadly, Kelley allegedly left the program on Nov. 19, 2017, and was "terminated from the recovery court program" shortly afterward, which violated the terms of her probation and resulted in an eight-year sentence. According to Entertainment Tonight, Kelley is scheduled for release in August 2025, but will be up for parole in February 2019.

Redmond O'Neal, the son of Hollywood legends, Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal, has been in and out of jail for many years now. According The Daily Mail, his troubles with the law started back in 2008 after he was arrested for possession of heroin. Redmond was then court-ordered into treatment centers in 2011 and 2014 after he allegedly relapsed. He then violated the "terms of his probation stemming from his felony heroin drug possession conviction" in 2015, which got him a new three-year sentence. Unfortunately for Redmond and his family, this was just the beginnings of his troubles.

Shortly after Redmond's release, he allegedly robbed a convenience store in Santa Monica, Calif. while armed with a knife in May 2018, before even more violent crimes were pinned on him. According to TMZ, he was charged with attempted murder after seriously injuring five men, two of whom he allegedly stabbed. In addition to being sued by one of the victims, who claimed Redmond stabbed him in the head and neck, another alleged victim accused him of committing a homophobic hate crime in a separate lawsuit.

Redmond faces several other charges from his alleged six-day spree of violence and assault, which concluded with the convenience store robbery. According to Radar Online, he reportedly now faces 22 years in prison, and has allegedly been on suicide watch since October 2018.

Edson Cholbi do Nascimento, known as Edinho, the son of soccer legend, Pelé, is currently behind bars serving a lengthy prison term on charges relating to drug trafficking, according to The Sun. Despite the conviction, Edinho, a former soccer player himself, still declares his innocence. His father, Pelé (Edson Arantes do Nascimento), also insists his son is innocent, saying (via BBC), "God willing, justice will be done. There is not a shred of evidence against my son." 

In 2005, Edinho and 51 others were arrested in a police sting, the result of an eight-month investigation. After appealing the drug trafficking charges, Edinho was freed until 2014 when he was sentenced to 33 years in prison. According to The Sun, this term would later be reduced to approximately 13 years, which Edinho began serving in February of 2017. Though he was released briefly in March of 2017 to continue his appeal process, Edinho was ordered back to prison in July of 2017. 

According to Edinho, the charges and sentencing are the result of him being connected to the wrong people. "The argument is related to my friendship with the other accused. I have never denied that but I have never laundered money. ... It's difficult to accept and to go through everything I've gone through for more than 15 years."

In 2008, musician Goldie (Clifford Price) discovered that his son had been named as a suspect in the stabbing murder of 21-year-old Marlon Morris. Goldie's son, Jamie Price, allegedly went on the run after being fingered as the murderer by police. "My son is on the run. I tried to change his life, I tried to give him opportunities," Goldie told The Mirror. "But he went the other way. This child of mine had every opportunity, that's the saddest thing about this. I feel like I've f****** failed already."

Price was eventually apprehended and brought to trial. During the subsequent investigation and court cases, Price was convicted of stabbing and killing Morris, an alleged rival gang member. In 2010, Price was sentenced to a minimum sentence of 21-years behind bars. Goldie, who knew the victim's father, also told The Mirror, "I am devastated at the loss of someone's life. ... I felt more sorrow that someone's mother had woken up without a son, that played more on my mind than anything else. I've lost friends and people that I've admired. The loss of any life is a travesty."

After Price was sentenced, Detective Constable Allison Smith read a statement (via The Daily Mail) written by the Morris family, which addressed Goldie's difficult situation as well, stating, "We are not the only victims here. The family of Jamie Price will also be suffering."

In 2008, chilling news broke that Amanda Brumfield, the daughter of Billy Bob Thornton, had been accused of being responsible for the death of a child in her care. The toddler, Olivia Madison Garcia, was being looked after by Brumfield when she suffered "a three-and-a-half inch fracture on [her] skull and bleeding and swelling to her brain."

Brumfield, who was close friends with the child's mother, Heather Murphy, claimed that the toddler accidentally fell out of her playpen, but the prosecutors suggested that the injuries could not have resulted from a fall from that height. In the end, Brumfield was acquitted of the first-degree murder charges and the aggravated child abuse charges but convicted of aggravated manslaughter. This conviction came with a 20-year prison sentence.

Brumfield is the oldest of Thornton's five children, though the father and daughter are reportedly estranged. Arnold Robinson, the actor's publicist, told CNN (via The Hollywood Reporter) that, "When informed about this situation, he [Thornton] commented that, 'Anytime a baby's life is lost is an unimaginable tragedy and my heart goes out to the baby's family and loved ones.'"

Ray Sharkey, the actor known for his roles on TV's Wiseguy and the 1980 film, The Idolmaker, had something new added to his legacy in 2015, 12 years after his death. On September 19 of that year, Sharkey's daughter, Cecelia Sharkey, allegedly killed Patricia Metropoulos with a baseball bat. The victim was Cecelia's boyfriend's mother, and the attack allegedly turned violent during a verbal altercation at Patricia's home in Reseda, California. Though Cecelia fled the scene, she was later brought in to police custody without any resistance.

Over the next two years, Cecelia's fate hung in the balance. If convicted, she faced life in prison or the death penalty. In November of 2017, however, the case was finally closed, and the sentence was neither of those options. Cecelia pleaded no contest to the second-degree murder charges, with her defense insisting that she was "insane at the time of the crime." The court's findings agreed with that claim, and Cecelia was sent to Patton State Hospital, a secure treatment center in San Bernardino, California, which houses many of the state's criminally insane. It's unclear how long Cecelia will remain in that prison-like facility.

In 2013, former NBA baller and current coach, Nick Van Exel, watched as his son, Nickey Van Exel, was sentenced to 60 years in prison for shooting and killing a long-time friend, Bradley Bassey Eyo. While Nickey's defense stated that the shooting, which took place at his home, was accidental, the prosecution saw his actions afterward far too suspicious to buy that excuse. According to The Dallas Morning News, prosecutors suggested that after fatally shooting his best friend, Nickey wrapped the body in plastic and dumped it in a lake. Nickey then allegedly returned home and cleaned up any evidence, which included dumping the murder weapon in a creek. Still, it wasn't long before Nickey was caught and arrested. He was initially charged with manslaughter, but things would get much worse for the basketball star's son.

While investigators sorted through the evidence, they noticed that the deceased had been charged with a series of robberies in Houston in 2010. Their reports showed that Bradley had recently pleaded guilty to the charges and planned to give information about his accomplice, Nickey. Though Nickey was suspected of being involved, police never had enough evidence to convict. With Bradley prepared to give him up to the police, Nickey allegedly tried to stop that from happening and murdered his friend. Armed with this motive, the prosecution had all they needed to pursue a capital murder charge, leading to a 60-year sentence for Nickey.

When Coolio (Artis Ivey Jr.) was arrested in 2012 for some active bench warrants resulting from traffic violations, he was held in the same jail as his son, Grtis Ivey, was already being held in. While the father would be released for his lesser crimes, the son would face a longer road to freedom.

In November of 2011, Grtis was arrested after he and a female accomplice allegedly robbed an apartment while holding the tenant at gunpoint. TMZ reported that Grtis' accomplice, an alleged prostitute named Shantrice Wilkerson, chose the robbery victim after her failed attempt to have sex with the man for money. Grtis and Shantrice then allegedly revisited the man's apartment a few nights later, but the target wasn't home — his roommate was. The armed suspects then forced the roommate into the bathroom and then robbed the place.

It seems that the two crooks didn't think they would be identified, but they were. With descriptions provided by the victim, Grtis and Shantrice were soon arrested. According to another TMZ report, in exchange for pleading guilty to a felony robbery charge, prosecutors dropped the other charges. In the end, however, Grtis was still sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

Former Boston Red Sox player-turned broadcaster Jerry Remy has seen his children get into trouble in the past. In 2008, his son, Jared, was fired by Major League Baseball from his job as a security guard at Fenway Park over his alleged steroid use. In 2010, his other son, Jordan, was arrested on assault and battery charges after an altercation with a female in the Boston Beer Garden. Then, in July of 2013, Jerry's daughter, Jenna, was arrested for an alleged violent break-in attempt at her ex-boyfriend's house.

Sadly, none of that could have prepared Jerry for the news that came in August of 2013: his son, Jared, had murdered his girlfriend, Jennifer Martel, in front of their four-year-old daughter. Actually, it's possible that the Remy family was prepared for this. According to Slate, Jared had previously been arrested 14 times, several times involving violent outbursts.

In fact, the day before Jared stabbed Jennifer to death, he appeared in court for allegedly "slamming [her] face into a mirror," according to The Boston Globe. With no bail sought by the prosecution, Remy was allowed to go home afterward. He did, and the next night Martel was dead. In 2014, Jared was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole.

Sarah Palin is best known for running alongside the late Senator John McCain during the 2008 presidential election, but her family is no stranger to scandal — particularly her eldest son, Track. The army vet has faced his fair share of legal woes following multiple accusations of domestic violence.

According to CNN, Track was arrested for a third time in September 2018, after he reportedly got into an argument and assaulted a female acquaintance, before taking her phone away to prevent her from calling for help. While he later pleaded, "Not guilty, for sure," to misdemeanor charges of domestic violence, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct, he was automatically looking at a one-year sentence.

The bust violated the terms of an agreement stemming from Track's December 2017 arrest, after he allegedly broke into his parents' home and physically assaulted his father, Todd: he could either complete a therapeutic program for veterans and serve a 10-day stint or spend a whole year behind bars. Sarah Palin previously attributed her son's PTSD, which stems from his service in Iraq, to playing a role in his alleged behavior. However, this latest incident unfortunately disqualified him from the program. 

While a judge later agreed to delay his sentence until December 2018 after a spot at another treatment hospital meant for rehabilitating veterans became available, it's unclear at the time of this writing whether Track will serve his sentence at a halfway house or in jail.