Young Thug changed his plea to guilty on Thursday (October 31), bringing an end to a gang trial that has run for the last two years.
The 33-year-old Atlanta rapper, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, was indicted in 2022 on charges related to his alleged leadership of street gang YSL, or Young Slime Life.
Members of the gang have been accused of committing illegal and violent acts, including murder, armed robbery, drug dealing and carjacking.
NBC News reports that the trial has become the longest-running criminal trial in the history of Georgia.
Earlier this week, three of Young Thug’s co-defendants Quamarvious Nichols, 29, Marquavius Huey, 28, and Rodalius Ryan, 18, took plea deals after speculation that Superior Court Judge Paige Whitaker could order a mistrial.
According to CNN, Whitaker accepted Young Thug’s guilty plea and sentenced him to time served. Young Thug has been in jail since he was arrested in May 2022, and will now be released from custody. He will have to serve 15 years on probation as part of the non-negotiated plea agreement.
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 street gang with ties to the national Bloods gang.
Young Thug first achieved mainstream success with 2014 single “Stoner.” In 2016 he founded his own 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 of Young Thug’s former co-defendants testified that Young Thug and five others on trial were members of the Young Slime Life gang.
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Trontavious Stephens, who also accepted a plea deal, took the stand in the Georgia courtroom and was asked 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, before referring to each of the men standing trial by their nicknames.
The defence team had argued that YSL is simply 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 numerous viral moments. A video of Mr Williams’s lawyer circulated after he argued that his client’s song “pushin P” stood for “pushing positivity.”
The rapper himself made headlines when he wore a wolf-emblazoned sweater after the prosecution described him as the leader 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.”
