Atlanta rapper Young Thug accepts plea deal in years-long racketeering trial

Atlanta rapper Young Thug will be 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, admitted to six counts - including one gang charge, three drug charges and two gun charges - following a lengthy trial that first began last November.  

He also entered a no contest plea to another gang charge and a racketeering conspiracy charge, meaning that he decided not to contest those charges but can 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 ahead of sentencing, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

I hope that you allow me to go home, and trust in me to do the right thing. 

Jeffery Williams, aka Young Thug, will be released on probation after pleading guilty Thursday to gang, drug and gun charges

Williams had entered his pleas without reaching a deal with prosecutors after negotiations between the two sides broke up, leaving it up to the judge to determine how long he should be sentenced to.

State prosecutors recommended a sentence of 45 years, 25 of which would be behind bars and 20 years probation.

They had previously presented a more lenient deal of just 15 years probation if Williams agreed to special conditions and would take ownership and responsibility for being the leader of YSL, his record label, that prosecutors claimed was also a street gang, the New York Times reports.

But Williams denied the offer, with his lead attorney, Brian Steel, saying they vehemently disagree with many of the statements prosecutors have made, and arguing that it was offensive that the state was using Young Thugs lyrics against him. 

Steel went on to say the evidence against his client is weak and accused prosecutors of misrepresenting and hiding evidence.

His whole being is trying to break the chains of poverty for others and it has been spun in this courtroom with false statements and allegations against Mr. Williams at every turn, Steel argued, as he accused authorities of having tunnel vision in trying to take down a famous rapper.

Steel even said he told his client he thought they were winning the trial and should go through to a jury verdict.

"But he told me, `I can´t wait another three months if there is any possibility I could go home because I have children that are hurting. I have things to do," Steel said, claiming Williams accepted the guilty plea because the lengthy trial was holding this man hostage.

The judge ultimately sentenced him to 15 years probation, and imposed several conditions including staying away from the city of Atlanta for 10 years - except for weddings and funerals, according to the Journal Constitution. 

Prosecutors had claimed that Williams ran a street gang in Atlanta even as his music career was taking off

Cameras caught Williams arrest in May last year and his admission to Fulton County Jail

Williams was charged in May 2022 along with more than two dozen other people of conspiring to violate Georgia´s anti-racketeering law by furthering the goals of YSL, Williams record label that authorities claimed doubled as a gang.

The rapper was also charged with drug and gun charges, and faced 120 years in prison on all charges.

Jury selection at the courthouse in Atlanta began in January 2023 and took nearly 10 months.

Opening statements in his trial then began nearly a year ago, in November 2023, when prosecutors described Williams as a gangster that went by the name of King Slime, the leader of a gang that terrorized the streets of Atlanta with gang warfare, robbery and drug deals for nearly a decade before his music career took off.

Prosecutors have since called dozens of witnesses, as they argued that Young Thug was pulling the strings as the chief financier of the YSL street gang, whose dominance and influence was both enhanced by and lent credibility to its members rap careers.

They had sought to prove that disputes between YSL and the local Bloods gang led to more than 50 violent encounters since 2015 - focusing on the murder that January of Donovan Thomas Jr, also known as Nut, in a drive-by shooting.

Prosecutors focused on the 2015 shooting death of Donovan Thomas Jr, also known as Nut

The state had claimed that Thomas - a one-time friend and ally of YSL - had been the leader of the Inglewood Family Bloods.

Even though Deamonte Kendrick, of Yak Gotti, and Shannon Stillwell, or SB or Shannon Jackson, were charged with his murder, prosecutors attempted to prove Williams authorized the shooting, renting the car they used and then providing safe harbor in Miami for those responsible.

They also claimed the two sides regularly engaged in retaliatory shootings across 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 get sales.

They unsuccessfully fought to prevent prosecutors from using rap lyrics as supporting evidence, but Adriane Love, the chief deputy district attorney for Fulton County, argued: We didnt chase the lyrics to solve the murder, we chased the murder and found the lyrics, as she pointed to lines from Young Thugs music that her office claimed corresponded to real-world violence.

Judge  Paige Whitaker sentenced Young Thug on Thursday to 15 years probation

Yet the trial continued to be plagued by the jail stabbing of Stillwell, and a stream of relcutant and obfuscating witnesses.

At one point, the judge in the case had to recuse himself, and was replaced by Judge Whitaker - who indicated she wanted to swiftly end the trial.

It was again halted last week following the states questioning of Wunnie Lee, a rapper who performs as SlimeLife Shawty.

He was asked to read aloud an Instagram post that was submitted as evidence, but it was not properly redacted, which defense attorneys argued provided prejudicial information about one of the defendants.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys then spent days negotiating plea deals, leading three other co-defendants to also pleaded guilty this week.

Nine others had accepted plea deals before the trial began, and prosecutors dropped charges against one defendant after he was convicted of murder in an unrelated case.

Meanwhile, Kendrick and Stillwell say they plan to continue taking their cases to trial.

Yak Gotti has rejected the states latest plea offer and fully intends to take this to the jury and get our not guilty verdicts and go home, said his lawyer, Douglas Weinstein.