3 Strikes(2000)

SHORT VERSION:
Rob manages to get a hold of an answering machine recording from Dahlia of J.J. confessing to her brother Blue how the shooting incident with the cops and the possession of the stolen car was entirely his fault and how he plans to have Rob take the heat for everything, and when Rob ultimately gets arrested and brought to court, this evidence clears him of all charges.

However, the judge still nails him for violating his parole due to not having met his parole officer after his release from prison, and he sentences Rob to thirty days in prison for that, but says that it will not count as his third strike.

The closing text states that Rob ended up getting released early due to prison overcrowding.

LONG VERSION:
When Rob (Brian Hooks) calls his mother (Starletta DuPois) while hiding out in a hotel, she tells him that she knows of the shooting incident he had with J.J. (De’aundre Bonds) and the police, and she got a call from Dahlia (Mo’Nique), a woman he knows, who said that she has a tape that could keep Rob out of jail (the tape is an answering machine recording her brother Blue [Barima McKnight] unknowingly made while he was talking to J.J., where J.J. admits to him that only he shot at the cops and stole the car and that he plans to have Rob take the heat for everything). He later calls Dahlia up and she confirms that she has this tape. Before going to meet her, he visits his friend Mike (E-40) and asks him to find him a good lawyer that can help him out, so he agrees to ring up Libowitz (Phil Morris) for him.

Dahlia has an argument with Blue over the recording and other matters, and after he steps outside to blow off some steam, he sees Rob coming up to the house, so he takes off to find Tone (Faizon Love) and his crew so they can beat him up for abandoning J.J. during the shootout. Dahlia tells Rob that she will give him the tape in exchange for a good time in bed with him, much to his disgust, but he is eventually able to sneak out with the tape before things get too hot and heavy. He then finds himself face-to-face with Tone and his gang, but just as they start putting a pounding on him, the police – having tracked Rob down through a tap in his parents’ phone – pull up to the house, forcing them to retreat. Of course, Brian quickly finds himself running away from the police as well.

He makes his way back to his car and phones up Mike, and he tells him to call up Libowitz immediately, and also requests for him to call up news reporter Stan Wilson (Bennet Guillory) and have him meet him (Rob) at the First A.M.E. Church in ten minutes so he can get a highlight story on the shooting incident. Rob then continues eluding the police, which sees his car getting wrecked by their gunfire and SWAT units and helicopters getting called in, but Mike manages to find Rob and pick him up so he can get to the church. They make it there, where Libowitz and Wilson are waiting for them, but so are the cops, and Rob is promptly handcuffed.

At the courthouse some time later, the judge tells Libowitz and the prosecutor that, after having heard the tape himself, it is clear that Rob is not guilty. However, he still nails Rob for violating his parole due to not having met his parole officer after his release, and he sentences him to thirty days in prison for that, but says that it will not count as a third strike. Rob’s father (George Wallace) tells him that he will pick him up himself when he gets out so he will actually get home.

The film’s final text states that Rob was released early due to prison overcrowding.

IMDB