Atlanta rapper Young Thug is being released from prison after pleading guilty Thursday to gang, drug and gun charges.
The 33-year-old Grammy-winning artist, whose given name is Jeffery Williams, has admitted to six charges — including one gang charge, three drug charges and two weapons charges — following a lengthy trial that first began last November.
He also entered a plea to another gang charge and a racketeering charge, meaning he decided not to contest those charges but could be punished for them as if he had pleaded guilty.
“I take full responsibility for my crimes and my charges,” Williams told Judge Paige Whitaker prior to sentencing. according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
“I hope you will allow me to go home and trust that I will do the right thing.”
Jeffery Williams, aka Young Thug, is released on parole after pleading guilty Thursday to gang, drug and gun charges
Williams had entered his pleas without reaching an agreement with prosecutors after negotiations between the two sides broke down, leaving it up to the judge to determine how long he should be sentenced.
Prosecutors recommended a 45-year prison sentence, with 25 years behind bars and 20 years of probation.
They had previously offered a more lenient deal of just 15 years’ probation if Williams agreed to special terms and “took ownership and responsibility for being the leader of YSL,” his record label, which prosecutors alleged was also a street gang. reports the New York Times.
But Williams denied the offer, with his lead attorney, Brian Steel, saying they “strongly disagree” with many of the statements prosecutors made, and that it was “offensive” that the state used Young Thug’s lyrics against him used.
Steel further said the evidence against his client is weak and accused prosecutors of misrepresenting and concealing evidence.
“His entire being is trying to break the chains of poverty for others and that is being spun around in this courtroom with false statements and accusations against Mr. Williams,” Steel argued, accusing authorities of having “tunnel vision” in the courtroom. trying to take down a famous rapper.
In fact, Steel said he told his client he thought they were winning the trial and should move on to a jury verdict.
“But he told me, ‘I can’t wait another three months if there’s any way I can go home because I have kids that are hurting. I have things to do,'” Steel said, claiming that Williams accepted a guilty plea because the lengthy trial involved “holding this man hostage.”
The judge ultimately sentenced him to 15 years of probation and imposed several conditions, including a 10-year stay out of the city of Atlanta — with the exception of weddings and funerals, according to the Journal Constitution.
Prosecutors had alleged Williams led a street gang in Atlanta as his music career took off
Cameras captured Williams’ arrest last May and his booking into the Fulton County Jail
Williams was charged in May 2022, along with more than two dozen other people, with conspiring to violate Georgia’s anti-racketeering law by furthering the objectives of YSL, Williams’ record label that authorities alleged also operated as a gang.
The rapper was also charged with drug and gun charges, receiving a 120-year prison sentence on all charges.
Jury selection at the Atlanta courthouse began in January 2023 and lasted nearly ten months.
Opening statements in his trial then began nearly a year ago, in November 2023, when prosecutors described Williams as a gangster who went by the name King Slime, the leader of a gang that terrorized the streets of Atlanta with gang warfare, theft and drugs. deals for nearly a decade before his music career took off.
Prosecutors have since called dozens of witnesses as they argue that Young Thug pulled the strings as the chief financier of the YSL street gang, whose dominance and influence were both bolstered by and lent credibility to its members’ rap careers.
They had tried to prove that disputes between YSL and the local Bloods gang have led to more than 50 violent encounters since 2015, focusing on the January killing of Donovan Thomas Jr., also known as Nut, in a drive-by by-shooting.
Prosecutors focused on the 2015 shooting of Donovan Thomas Jr., also known as Nut
The state had alleged that Thomas – a former friend and ally of YSL – had been the leader of the Inglewood Family Bloods.
Although Deamonte Kendrick, of Yak Gotti, and Shannon Stillwell, or SB or Shannon Jackson, were charged with murder, prosecutors tried to prove that Williams had consented to the shooting by renting the car they used and then driving to a safe haven Miami to offer to those responsible.
They also alleged that the two sides regularly engaged in retaliatory shootings in the city in the years that followed.
Defense attorneys, however, insisted that YSL was simply a successful rap crew born out of poverty and struggle in violent neighborhoods, which they exaggerated into a gangster image for their music and videos in an effort to generate sales.
They fought unsuccessfully to prevent prosecutors from using rap lyrics as corroborating evidence, but Fulton County Chief Deputy District Attorney Adriane Love argued, “We didn’t chase the lyrics to solve the murder, we chased the murder and found the text. ,” while pointing out lines from Young Thug’s music that her office claimed were consistent with real-life violence.
Judge Paige Whitaker sentenced Young Thug to 15 years’ probation on Thursday
Yet the trial was still plagued by Stillwell’s murder in prison, and by a stream of hesitant and inconclusive witnesses.
At one point, the judge in the case had to withdraw and was replaced by Judge Whitaker – who indicated that he wanted to end the trial quickly.
It was shut down again last week following the state’s questioning of Wunnie Lee, a rapper who performs as SlimeLife Shawty.
He was asked to read an Instagram post submitted into evidence, but it was improperly redacted, which lawyers said provided damaging information about one of the defendants.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys then spent days negotiating plea deals, leading to three other co-defendants also pleading guilty this week.
Nine others had accepted plea deals before the trial began, and prosecutors dropped charges against one suspect after he was convicted of murder in an unrelated case.
In the meantime, Kendrick and Stillwell say they plan to continue taking their cases to court.
“Yak Gotti has rejected the state’s latest plea offer and plans to present it to the jury, obtain our not guilty verdicts and go home,” said his attorney, Douglas Weinstein.