Lil Mabu Criminal History

Understanding the Legal Incidents Involving Lil Mabu

Lil Mabu is the stage name of Matthew Peter Costello, a teenage internet personality and rapper who grew up in the New York area. He first became known through YouTube skits and rap videos before gaining mainstream attention in 2024. Over time, several legal incidents were reported involving him, and those incidents have been tracked by news outlets and law enforcement records.

Lil Mabu Criminal History

The incidents that make up what people refer to as his criminal history are not particularly complex, but they are worth clarifying because so much of the coverage is vague or exaggerated. The most documented event is an arrest that occurred in late 2024. According to public reports, Costello was arrested on charges that included assault and related offenses following an incident. At the time, news sites circulated photos from the arrest and details about the specific charges filed against him. Before that arrest, there were fewer publicized legal incidents. Most of his earlier controversy was social media drama and public feuds rather than criminal matters. That shift in 2024 is what pushed the conversation toward his criminal record. When you're looking into this kind of thing, the best approach is to check county court records directly rather than relying on secondary summaries. In New York, you can search the New York State Unified Court System website for case numbers and dockets. The search is free and returns the actual filings. During one instance where I was trying to verify a charge listing, I found that a news article had conflated two separate court dates into one event. The docket entry showed the arrest date and the arraignment date as completely separate entries, which changed how the timeline looked. I just made a habit of cross-referencing the docket with the articles afterward.

The charges reported against Costello generally involve misdemeanor-level offenses rather than felonies, at least based on what has been filed publicly so far. Misdemeanor cases in New York go through the local criminal court system, and disposition outcomes can take weeks or months to appear in public records after an arrest. That lag is why older articles sometimes look outdated when a case later gets adjourned, reduced, or resolved in a way the original reporting did not cover. One counter-intuitive thing most people miss is that an arrest does not equal a conviction, and the distinction matters a lot in how you present any summary. Many websites and social posts treat the arrest record as if it were a final judgment. It is not. The docket will show the current status: pending, adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, guilty plea, not guilty, or dismissed. You have to check the most recent docket entry, not the initial filing, or you are misrepresenting the situation. Another detail that catches people off guard is how juvenile records work in New York. If a person was under 16 at the time of an incident, some records may be sealed or handled in family court rather than criminal court. Costello has been publicly identified as being born in 2005, which means any incidents before he turned 18 could involve juvenile proceedings that are not fully visible in the adult criminal database. That is a limitation you should acknowledge if you are compiling any kind of comprehensive list. It is easy to miss cases simply because they exist in a different court system.

If you want to do this efficiently, I would recommend starting with a NYSCEF or county record search for the defendant's legal name, Matthew Peter Costello, and also checking variations like Matt Costello or Matthew Costello. Names get entered inconsistently. I once spent about 20 minutes searching by one spelling before realizing the clerk had filed it under a different combination. Switching the search parameters and rerunning it found the record immediately. Here are the key takeaways if you are researching this subject:

• Check the official NYS court docket system rather than citing news articles alone.
• Distinguish between arrest records and final dispositions.
• Account for juvenile court records if the person was under 18 during the incident.
• Search multiple name variations to avoid missing filings.

The most straightforward way to find current information is the New York State Unified Court System case search tool. It is free and updated regularly. There is no single download link for a criminal history report because those records are maintained case by case, not as one consolidated file. If you need a compiled version, you would have to pull individual docket entries and assemble them yourself. The main downside of relying on public court databases is that the information is never going to be instant. Case statuses update on their own schedule, and many entries do not include full charging language in the summary view. You often have to open the actual documents to see the precise charges. It takes more time, but it is the only way to be accurate.