Rapper Young Thug to be freed after pleading responsible in gang trial that’s lasted two years | EUROtoday

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Young Thug modified his plea to responsible on Thursday (October 31), bringing an finish to a gang trial that has run for the final two years.

The 33-year-old Atlanta rapper, whose actual identify is Jeffery Williams, was indicted in 2022 on expenses associated to his alleged management of avenue gang YSL, or Young Slime Life.

Members of the gang have been accused of committing unlawful and violent acts, together with homicide, armed theft, drug dealing and carjacking.

NBC News stories that the trial has turn out to be the longest-running felony trial within the historical past of Georgia.

Earlier this week, three of Young Thug’s co-defendants Quamarvious Nichols, 29, Marquavius Huey, 28, and Rodalius Ryan, 18, took plea offers after hypothesis that Superior Court Judge Paige Whitaker may order a mistrial.

According to CNN, Whitaker accepted Young Thug’s responsible plea and sentenced him to time served. Young Thug has been in jail since he was arrested in May 2022, and can now be launched from custody. He must serve 15 years on probation as a part of the non-negotiated plea settlement.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had used Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute to argue that Young Thug and his associates are a avenue gang with ties to the nationwide Bloods gang.

Young Thug first achieved mainstream success with 2014 single “Stoner.” In 2016 he based his personal label, YSL Records, and went on to rack up three chart-topping albums and collaborate with Travis Scott, Post Malone, Meek Mill, Drake and others.

Back in January, one in all Young Thug’s former co-defendants testified that Young Thug and 5 others on trial had been members of the Young Slime Life gang.

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Trontavious Stephens, who additionally accepted a plea deal, took the stand within the Georgia courtroom and was requested by the prosecution: “Which of these defendants in this courtroom, right now, are members of YSL, Young Slime Life, the gang?”

“All of them,” Stephens replied, earlier than referring to every of the boys standing trial by their nicknames.

The defence group had argued that YSL is just a music label that stands for Young Stoner Life, contradicting prosecutors’ claims that YSL is a gang that stands for Young Slime Life.

The long-running trial has produced quite a few viral moments. A video of Mr Williams’s lawyer circulated after he argued that his shopper’s music “pushin P” stood for “pushing positivity.”

The rapper himself made headlines when he wore a wolf-emblazoned sweater after the prosecution described him because the chief of the “pack” and made references to the Jungle Book: “For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.”