Prosecutors portrayed him as the ruthless leader of a violent gang, the shot-caller in a criminal enterprise responsible for robberies, murder and mayhem across Atlanta.
They argued the Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug was a danger to the community and persuaded a judge to keep him locked away for two and a half years.
The Atlanta rapper’s defense lawyer said his client, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, was being unfairly persecuted and pledged to fight to the finish of the trial, which still seemed months away.
But on Thursday, Williams pleaded guilty and walked free. What broke the impasse?
It was the looming threat of a mistrial — and the desire for Williams to have all this over and done with.
The grueling trial was turned on its head last month when Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker indicated that she was open to granting the defense’s latest request for a mistrial.
Not only that, Whitaker said she was inclined to grant it “without prejudice,” meaning the two-year long case would have to be tried once again. That harrowing possibility prompted more than a week of intense negotiations between prosecutors and defense attorneys.
One by one, Williams’ co-defendants began to plead guilty. Quamarvious Nichols, Rodalius Ryan. Marquavius Huey.
But the main event came when Williams entered the courtroom late Thursday afternoon. Most defendants who plead guilty have struck a deal with prosecutors. Williams had rejected a plea offer from the state because his lawyers said it had too many strings attached. So he agreed to plead guilty, but left his fate in the judge’s hands.
It was a risky calculation and one his legal team said they didn’t immediately endorse.
Speaking on the courthouse steps later Thursday, Williams’ lead attorney, Brian Steel, said he felt confident they could have secured an acquittal. But after two and a half years in jail, he said his client just wanted to go home to his family.
The bet paid off. Whitaker sentenced Williams to time served and 15 years probation.
The 33-year-old was released from jail Thursday night, hours after he pleaded guilty to gang, gun and drug charges. To charges of racketeering and leading a criminal enterprise, Williams entered a plea of no contest — meaning he was not denying or admitting to the charges but was accepting punishment for them.
Four guilty pleas
Defense lawyers claimed victory. But the Fulton County District Attorney’s office did too.
Prosecutors hailed the guilty pleas of four of the six Young Slime Life, or YSL, defendants last week as a victory in combating violent crime carried out by a cold-blooded Atlanta street gang.
“The convictions in this case represent accountability for admitted members of YSL,” the DA’s office said in a statement. “Mr. Williams chose to plead guilty to all of the charges against him and allow the judge to determine his sentence. Every criminal defendant in every case has the right to make that decision at any time.”
Charlie Bailey, a defense attorney who is a friend of Willis’ and a former Fulton gang prosecutor, noted that Williams had spent a significant time behind bars following is arrest.
“That’s not nothing, and the judges kept him behind bars for a reason,” said Bailey, whose wife works in the DA’s office. “That’s not an arbitrary decision.”
He said one misstep or violation of the terms of his sentence could land Williams in prison.
“That’s the judge saying, ‘I’m giving you this shot. You served this time, I’m giving you a chance to prove yourself,’” Bailey said.
The judge also banished Williams’ from metro Atlanta for the next decade, with exceptions for things like weddings, funerals and graduations for family members. And she ordered Williams to come to metro Atlanta four times a year for each year of his probation and give “a live anti-gang and anti-gun violence presentation” to students at schools or boys’ and girls’ clubs.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
‘Think about all the tax dollars’
But some attorneys called last week’s pleas a desperate attempt by the state to salvage convictions in the longest trial in Georgia history that was marred by repeated delays, prosecutorial blunders and a contentious showdown that led to the highly unusual mid-trial ouster of Judge Ural Glanville.
Former DeKalb County District Attorney J. Tom Morgan said prosecutors must have seen their case falling apart to extend Williams an offer that resulted in probation.
“The only reason I could see that it did fall apart is that the prosecution realized that, yes, it’s a good chance this case is going to end up in an acquittal or mistrial, and we got to get something out of it, at least something,” Morgan said. “I don’t see how this is a victory for the prosecution. … I would consider that a victory for the defense.”
Atlanta attorney Robert James, another former DeKalb DA, agreed.
“I think ultimately they were trying to squeeze some victory out of it, some sort of win,” he said. “But it begs the question: Was it all there in the first place?”
Interestingly, the state’s deal also would have placed Williams on probation for 15 years — which is what he ultimately received from Whitaker.
But Williams rejected the offer because it included a host of special conditions he simply would not accept, Keith Adams, one of his defense attorneys, said.
“ (There were) too many to mention, including them wanting him to say things that simply weren’t true,” Adams said. “We weren’t willing to agree to conditions that were in place only to justify the state’s misguided prosecution.”
After Williams rejected the state’s offer, lead prosecutor Adriane Love recommended a sentence of 45 years, with 25 to serve in custody and another 20 on probation.
In response, Whitaker, who has been somewhat critical of the prosecution team since inheriting the case in July, said it wasn’t lost on her that had Williams agreed to the state’s special conditions, they would have dismissed three of his charges, allowed him to be sentenced to probation and let him walk of jail out that night.
Credit: Jason Getz
Credit: Jason Getz
Marietta attorney Ashleigh Merchant said her client, Martinez Arnold, pleaded guilty in the case two years ago to a single conspiracy count stemming from crimes for which he had already been sentenced and completed probation.
She called the seemingly never-ending trial an abuse of power and a huge waste of money.
“You know who loses?” she asked. “The taxpayers. Think about the money-suck. Think about all the tax dollars that were spent trying this case.”
Unable to reach an agreement on behalf of their clients, attorneys for the two remaining defendants say they may take the lengthy trial all the way to a jury verdict.
Shannon Stillwell and Deamonte Kendrick face minimum sentences of life in prison, plus additional time, if convicted of all their charges. Unless they can reach some deal by early next week, the jury is expected to return and the case would continue.
But Kendrick’s attorney said his client refuses to admit to the 2015 murder of Donovan Thomas, who prosecutors say was a leader of a rival gang.
“He is not going to plead out and take responsibility for the death of Donovan Thomas when he had absolutely nothing to do it,” attorney Doug Weinstein said Friday.
If proceedings resume, the jury would return next week to find significantly fewer defendants in the courtroom.
