Atlanta rap star Young Thug agreed to change his plea to guilty Thursday in Georgia’s longest-running criminal trial, a stunning turn that, if approved by the judge, would bring his high-profile case to a close.
The plea change by the rapper, whose real name is Jeffery Lamar Williams, appeared on the brink of not happening after Superior Court Judge Paige Whitaker asked if he agreed to a nonnegotiated plea. That means prosecutors and the defense could not come to a sentencing deal, and that the judge still ultimately decides his punishment.
The parties returned after a brief recess. The agreement comes after three of Young Thug’s co-defendants took plea deals this week following mounting speculation that Whitaker could order a mistrial.
Young Thug, 33, was indicted in 2022 on charges related to leading an alleged street gang, Young Slime Life, or YSL, with members accused of committing illegal and violent acts, including murder, armed robbery, drug dealing and carjacking.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis used Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, statute to claim Young Thug and his associates are a street gang with ties to the national Bloods gang.
Initially, prosecutors named 27 co-defendants. The trial against Young Thug began with jury selection in January 2023, and by the time opening statements started that November, after months of delays caused by some defendants taking plea deals and others choosing to be tried separately, he was one of six co-defendants.
Whitaker this week approved plea deals for three of them: Quamarvious Nichols, 29; Marquavius Huey, 28; and Rodalius Ryan, 18.
The men faced multiple counts of various racketeering- and gang-related charges, each potentially carrying prison sentences of five to 20 years. With all of them agreeing to plead guilty to racketeering conspiracy — with Huey also pleading guilty to other reduced charges — they accepted more lenient prison sentences with probation and time served. Ryan, however, will remain in prison on a life sentence for a 2019 murder, but his 10-year prison sentence in the RICO case has been commuted to time served.
It was not immediately clear whether the other two remaining co-defendants, Deamonte Kendrick and Shannon Stillwell, have ongoing negotiations with prosecutors for similar plea deals or will press ahead with the trial.
Still, given Young Thug’s apparent plea deal, an end to his part in the prosecution’s sprawling case comes after nearly two years of a winding livestreamed trial that has captivated court watchers. The original judge was recused from the trial in July after misconduct allegations by the defense, and heated courtroom exchanges between various parties and a multitude of bizarre moments, including a deputy allegedly smuggling contraband to a defendant and someone hacking the court’s Zoom to yell “Free Thug!” have punctuated the sluggish proceedings.
The judge had previously said the trial could conceivably stretch into next year, as the prosecution was still not done presenting its case.
But the latest, and most substantial twist, came as the result of a prosecutorial misstep during testimony last week.
As state witness Wunnie Lee, a rapper known as Slimelife Shawty, reviewed social media posts in front of the jury, he was inadvertently given an unredacted version of a post that referred to the hashtag #freequa, which may apply to nicknames for Nichols or Huey. The post was redacted for the jury.
But by Lee referring to Qua, prosecutors allowed the jury to presume that the co-defendants were in jail, a detail that is not supposed to be shared because it is considered prejudicial.
“We’re not going to be able to unring this bell, your honor,” Nicole Westmoreland, a lawyer for Nichols, said in asking for a mistrial.
Whitaker had suggested she would consider a mistrial motion. In the midst, prosecutors and defense lawyers spent days hammering out plea deals.
Young Thug first gained mainstream success with his 2014 drug anthem “Stoner.” He founded his own music label, YSL Records, in 2016, and has racked up three No. 1 albums on the Billboard chart, working with the likes of Travis Scott, Post Malone, Meek Mill and Drake. In 2019, he won a Grammy Award for song of the year for co-writing Childish Gambino’s “This Is America.”
He has been jailed since his arrest in May 2022.
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