Phillip Katsabanis is a Miami, Florida-based rapper known as Stitches who has become widely recognized for his face tattoos, aggressive rap style, and a long list of public altercations. Early in his career, he spent thousands of dollars to get his music videos featured on WorldstarHipHop, a massively popular rap site in the 2010s.
The move jumpstarted his career when his single, “Brick In Yo Face” went viral. While he has never achieved mainstream success, he has cultivated a cult following and amassed over 100 million views on YouTube.
Outside of his career, Stitches has been involved in a number of criminal offenses and physical altercations that have resulted in several arrests and convictions. In this article, we will be looking at the criminal record of Phillip Katsabanis, also known as Stitches. If you’re interested in finding out more about his criminal record, you can look Katsabanis up on this online criminal records search.
Phillip Katsabanis Police Record
Katsabanis has been a controversial figure since the start of his career, with music focused on gun violence and drug trafficking. His opinionated social media posts and videos have gotten him into hot water as well, with several bringing police to his door after he inadvertently confessed to various crimes.
Regardless, despite compelling evidence, the rapper has shown an impressive ability to get charges dropped.
2015 Nightclub Altercation
In December 2015, an ongoing feud between Katsabanis and rival rapper The Game had reached a boiling point. Phillip was driving around a nightclub that The Game had been confirmed to be at, waiting for the Los Angeles rapper to leave. This was reported through several videos on Stitches Instagram, which caught the attention of Miami Police.
As the police arrived, The Game exited the club. Police had surrounded Katsabanis’ car and were worried that he was attempting to do a drive-by on the building. Before they could get control of the situation, Katsabanis walked past them and confronted The Game.
As he was striding aggressively toward the other rapper, he was knocked unconscious by the manager of The Game. Due to Katsabanis’s refusal to listen to the Police, he and the manager were both arrested by Miami Police. Katsabanis was released from jail shortly after, and no charges were filed.
2017 Drug and Weapons Charges
Philip Katsabanis was arrested in January 2017 when cops pulled him over after it was reported that he parked in a handicapped spot in a local Whole Foods. As the police got to the car, they asked for Katsabani’s ID, to which he handed them his driver’s license and a joint. The smell of marijuana coming from the vehicle led the Officers to believe he had more drugs inside.
When asked if Katsabanis and his passenger had any weapons, both denied possessing any. The Miami police officers were unconvinced and asked the two men to exit the vehicle so they could conduct a search. They came up with a jar of marijuana and a loose pistol below the driver’s seat.
In the search, they also found two gun magazines as well as an unprescribed oxycodone.
Stitches later apologized to the police, stating that he only kept the firearm for his own protection. He was later charged with felony weapon and drug possession, which is a fair bit worse than parking in a handicapped spot.
2022 Arrest for Weapons and Drugs
In 2022, Stitches contacted the police, telling them that four people had broken into his business and had refused to leave. Despite Katsabanis yelling out for them to go several times, they did not respond or could be heard leaving. When the Police arrived, they discovered that there were no indications of a break-in whatsoever.
What they did discover was that Katsabanis was far from sober and behaving erratically. While they didn’t think that he had faked the event, they summed up that it probably resulted from Katsabani’s temporarily compromised mental state.
They did, however, find a stash of cocaine, which led to his arrest. The fact that Katsabanis had a history of drug possession as well as a song called “I Sell Cocaine!” only made things worse for the Florida artist.
He was charged with felony drug possession as well as misdemeanor weapons possession for firing a firearm in public. Unfortunately, there is little public record of when they discovered that he had fired off a round.
Surprisingly enough, after a colossal mistake by the police, all charges were dropped. This is because the cocaine seized from the rapper’s property was never sent to the controlled substances crime lab. How this mistake took place is anyone’s guess, though it allowed Katsabanis to walk free.
Phillip Katsabanis in 2023
Stitches has struggled to find the success that he achieved in the mid-2010s, though he is still releasing records fairly regularly. Despite several claims of being sober, the rapper has shown that he is inconsistent with his drug-free claims if the 2022 arrest is valid. He was married between 2012 – 2017 and has three children.
An infamous cult icon in Florida, the rapper has remained in his hometown of Miami. While it may seem like the lengthy criminal record of the artist would indicate advanced age, Katsabanis is 28 at the time of this article. With an obvious passion for music and more ink than skin left on his face, we can safely assume he will be releasing music for several years to come.
We can only hope that he avoids run-ins with the law going forward for his prosperity and the well-being of his three children.
