YSL RICO Trial: Jury deliberations for remaining defendants to begin Tuesday

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. – The longest-running criminal case in Georgia history will soon be in the hands of the men and women of the jury.

Almost a year after the start of the YSL RICO Trial, the number of defendants has narrowed to two: Shannon Stillwell and Deamonte Kendrick, who raps as Yak Gotti. After deliberations wrap up on Monday, the jury will now decide whether the two men will be found guilty of gang, murder, drug and weapons charges.

The original indictment charged 28 people with conspiring to violate Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Four men, including Young Thug, pleaded guilty last month. Stillwell and Kendrick rejected plea deals after weeks of negotiations, and their attorneys chose not to present evidence or witnesses.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberations Tuesday morning. If they can’t reach a decision by the end of Wednesday, they will return after Thanksgiving.

YSL RICO Case: Prosecution’s closing argument

On Monday, prosecutors condensed the last 12 months into just a few hours. The state argued that Kendrick and Stillwell were part of a larger conspiracy that involved a lot of violence.

“They show you over and over again that they have guns, and we’re not afraid to use them,” Adkins said. “Believe them. The evidence showed it.”

The state cited the law and reviewed evidence such as surveillance videos and social media posts. They say all this shows that YSL members like Kendrick and Stillwell committed crimes in half of the street gang that Young Thug founded.

Kendrick and Stillwell were accused of killing Donovan Thomas Jr., also known as “Big Nut,” at a barbershop in Atlanta in 2015. Prosecutors say Thomas was a member of a rival gang. Prosecutors said Stillwell was also charged with the 2022 murder of Shymel Drinks in retaliation for the killings of two YSL employees days earlier.

“If someone kills a rival gang member twice, it’s pretty clear that they knowingly and willingly agreed to sign on the dotted line or not,” Adkins said.

Adkins described YSL as a violent gang that operates through “deception, intimidation, destruction and death.”

He pointed to social media posts he said showed members killing people in rival gangs and said their clothing and tattoos were “walking billboards” for YSL.

YSL RICO Case: Defense’s closing argument

Lawyers for Stillwell and Kendrick said the state combined cherry-picked social media posts and song lyrics with unreliable witness testimony to paint a misleading narrative about young men with difficult upbringings trying to escape poverty through music.

Kendrick’s defense attorney, Doug Weinstein, and Stillwell’s defense attorney, Max Schardt, said prosecutors packed a series of different alleged crimes, many dating back nearly a decade, into one indictment without showing that they were connected to a criminal enterprise.

“The state has spent the last year with a hammer, hitting a square nail that they call evidence,” Schardt said.

But “that square peg doesn’t fit into that round hole,” he said.

Alleged YSL members said during the trial that they lied to police to avoid long prison sentences. Schardt suggested that one of these witnesses killed Thomas. Schardt said he implicated Stillwell, Kendrick and others as part of a litany of lies to avoid the threat of prison.

Before “getting caught up in targeting Jeffery Williams,” Weinstein said Kendrick focused on his rap career, which helped him escape his troubled past after his plans to play football at the University of Georgia fell through.

Weinstein said his client was not even in the car used in the shooting that killed Thomas. But prosecutors said it was Kendrick who alerted his colleagues to Thomas’ whereabouts before he was killed.

“When you look at the evidence presented to you and any review of that evidence, you will come back with findings that you are not guilty,” Weinstein said.

Previous YSL RICO plea agreements and disputes

The case against Young Thug, a 33-year-old Atlanta-born Grammy winner named Jeffery Williams, and dozens of others has seen twists, turns and major judge changes over the past two years.

Williams pleaded guilty to gang, drug and weapons charges in October after negotiations with prosecutors failed. This left the sentence up to Whitaker, who sentenced him to 40 years in prison. walk freely probation with severe restrictions, including prohibition from entering the Atlanta metropolitan area for the first 10 years except in certain circumstances.

The slow-moving case was fraught with problems from the beginning. Jury selection has been made almost 10 monthsand the original judge, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville, were removed from the case in July after defense attorneys filed a motion to dismiss based on a secret meeting with prosecutors and a state witness.

Whitaker took over the case and frequently lost patience with prosecutors for what he once called “bad lawyering.” He and defense attorneys scolded prosecutors for not sharing the evidence sooner.

More than 175 witnesses testified throughout the trial. Prosecutors alleged that Young Thug and two others formed a violent criminal street gang called Young Slime Life, or YSL, in 2012, which they said was affiliated with the national Bloods gang.

On: Young Bandit’s defense hearingDefense attorney Brian Steel said Young Thug was “falsely accused” and the evidence against him was weak. He also condemned the use of rap lyrics during the hearing.

Steel said he thought they won the trial and wanted to stick with the jury verdict, but Young Thug wanted to go home to his family rather than sit out the rest of the trial, which felt like “hell.”

Nine people, including the Atlanta rapper, were charged in the indictment Gunnawhose real name is Sergio Kitchens, accepted plea deals before the trial began. The other twelve people will be tried separately. Prosecutors dropped charges against a defendant convicted of murder in an unrelated case.