By CHARLOTTE KRAMON, Associated Press/Report for America
ATLANTA (AP) — The long-running gang and racketeering trial in Atlanta that led rapper Young Thug to plead guilty in October ended on Tuesday with a jury finding the last two defendants not guilty of murder and gang-related charges.
Deamonte Kendrick, who raps as Yak Gotti, was acquitted of all charges and Shannon Stillwell was found guilty only of a gun possession charge. The verdicts came nearly two years after jury selection began and a year after opening statements in a trial plagued with problems.
The original, sweeping indictment charged 28 people with conspiring to violate Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and used song lyrics and social media posts as evidence. Young Thug, a Grammy-winning artist whose real name is Jeffery Williams, was set free on probation after he pleaded guilty in October to gang, drug and gun charges when negotiations with prosecutors broke down.
Kendrick and Stillwell were charged in the 2015 killing of Donovan Thomas Jr., also known as “Big Nut,” who prosecutors say was in a rival gang. Stillwell was also charged in the 2022 death of Shymel Drinks, who prosecutors say was killed in retaliation for the killings days earlier of two associates in a gang known as YSL, which they say was co-founded by Young Thug.
Thomas was killed in a drive-by shooting outside an Atlanta barbershop. In the other killing, prosecutors alleged Stillwell pulled up next to Drinks and shot three rounds into his car.
Stillwell was sentenced to the 10-year maximum for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon previously convicted of a felony involving a gun, with credit for the two years he already served and the balance to be served on probation.
While a total of four defendants pleaded guilty before the end of the trial, the verdict for the final two was a major setback for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Critics had criticized her use of the state’s anti-racketeering law, which she also used to bring charges against President-elect Donald Trump for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
“We always respect the verdict of a jury,” said Jeff DiSantis, a spokesman for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Defense attorneys criticized the state for relying on song lyrics, saying they were among the faulty evidence prosecutors slapped together along with cherry-picked social media posts and unreliable witness testimony to create a misleading narrative about young men who turned to music to escape economic hardship and difficult pasts.
Prosecutors say Williams and two others in 2012 founded Young Slime Life, which they said was associated with the national Bloods gang. The 33-year-old artist also has a record label called Young Stoner Life. Kendrick is featured on two of the most popular songs from the label’s compilation album Slime Language 2, “Take It to Trial” and “Slatty,” as well as Young Thug’s “Slime Sh-t,” which prosecutors presented as evidence at trial.
Williams entered a risky “blind” plea — meaning he pleaded guilty without an agreement on his sentence — in October. Judge Paige Reese Whitaker let him out of jail on probation with tight restrictions, including a 10-year ban from metro Atlanta except for certain occasions.
The trial has been fraught with problems and delays and shook Atlanta’s rap scene. Williams grew up in an Atlanta housing project ridden with violence and became a highly successful artist who added his own melodic twist to the modern Southern trap sound he helped popularize.
Along with using lyrics and posts to prove that YSL was a gang, Kendrick’s attorney Doug Weinstein said during closing arguments that prosecutors threw together random alleged crimes “see what sticks” but did not prove they were connected to a criminal enterprise.
While defendants did commit crimes in the past, defense attorney Max Schardt said, it was to make money for themselves in communities stripped of economic opportunity — not to advance a gang. And music let some of them move on.
“As a whole, we know the struggles that these communities have had,” Schardt said. “A sad, tacit acceptance that it’s either rap, prison or death.”
Schardt sought to cast doubts on gang investigators and YSL associates the state brought in as witnesses. Several alleged YSL members testified they had lied to police to stay out of prison, and Schardt said officers had threatened them with long prison sentences if they didn’t say the right thing. He suggested one of those witnesses could have killed Thomas.
Prosecutors said those witnesses were honest with police but lied on the stand, in front of the people they had “snitched” on. And the testimonies are corroborated by other evidence such as songs and social media posts where they said defendants were “bragging about murder.”
Prosecutors said Stillwell and Kendrick were in the car used in the drive-by shooting that killed Thomas and that Stillwell’s social media posts indicate he was involved.
Defense lawyer Doug Weinstein said there was no evidence that Kendrick ever got in that car, but rather surveillance footage shows he was in his own vehicle around the time of the shooting. Prosecutors said that Kendrick switched cars off camera and that he was the one who told his counterparts where Thomas was, making him liable for his death.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys had conflicting interpretations of the distant surveillance footage in Drinks’ murder. Stillwell pulled up next to Drinks’ car and fired three rounds into his car, then sped away, prosecutors said. The defense said Stillwell drove away before Drinks was shot and that there was no gunshot residue in Stillwell’s car.
Jury selection for the trial took nearly 10 months, and Stillwell was stabbed last year at the Fulton County jail, which suspended trial proceedings. Kendrick was stabbed Sunday in jail.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville was removed from the case in July after defense attorneys filed a motion to recuse him based on a meeting he had with prosecutors and a state witness without defense attorneys present. When Whitaker took over, she reprimanded the prosecution for being disorganized and not sharing evidence.
Brian Steel, Young Thug’s attorney, said he wanted to continue with the trial because he believed they were winning, but the rapper said that sitting in court felt like “hell” and that he wanted to go home to his family.
Nine people charged in the indictment, including Gunna, accepted plea deals before the trial began. Charges against 12 others remain pending. Prosecutors dropped charges against one defendant after he was convicted of murder in an unrelated case.
Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Kramon on X: @charlottekramon.
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