Two more defendants enter pleas in Young Thug’s RICO case

Two more co-defendants accepted a mid-trial plea deal Wednesday Young criminal‘s long-running ring and racketeering conspiracy prosecution in Georgia. The new deals mean Young Thug, born Jeffery Williams, will now stand trial with just two other co-defendants – Deamonte “Yak Gotti” Kendrick and Shannon Stillwell – both accused of the 2015 murder of Donovan Thomas, a central charge in the case. case of the state.

Rodalius Ryan, 20, pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy to violate Georgia’s RICO law and was immediately sentenced to 10 years, commuted to prison. He is already serving a life sentence, with the possibility of parole, for the 2019 murder of Jamari Holmes. Ryan was 15 when Holmes died and hopes to eventually be released on appeal, his attorney said Wednesday. Holmes’ murder is listed in the state as an overt act extensive indictment of 65 counts which named more than 20 defendants, including Williams, when the seal was unveiled two years ago.

“We categorically and adamantly deny that YSL is the criminal and dangerous street gang that this trial claims it is,” Ryan’s attorney, Leah Abbasi, told the court during the plea hearing. Fulton County Judge Paige Reese Whitaker accepted Ryan’s plea, saying she found a “factual basis” for it based on the court record.

Marquavius ​​Huey, 28, also pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy to violate Georgia’s RICO law, as well as several other charges, including theft reduced by armed robbery. Under Huey’s deal, prosecutors agreed to dismiss multiple charges, including charges of hijacking and aggravated assault. Judge Whitaker immediately sentenced Huey to 25 years, with nine years in prison, nine years suspended and five years probation. (Huey has already served two years since being arrested while in custody in the YSL case.) Huey was originally charged with 19 counts and faced the possibility of multiple life sentences. Judge Whitaker called his deal “remarkable” and a “tremendous opportunity” to turn his life around.

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“I want to apologize to my children and my family, to everyone who supported me,” Huey told the court after he was sentenced. “I plan to do my time, come back and be a better man.”

Ryan and Huey entered pleas a day after Quamarvious Nichols made the first plea deal in what has become the longest trial in Georgia history. Nichols, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate Georgia’s RICO law. Six other charges, including a murder charge, were dismissed under the deal. Judge Whitaker immediately sentenced Nichols to his negotiated sentence of twenty years, with seven years in custody and thirteen years of probation. He faced a possible life sentence.

Nichols’ attorney, Bruce Harvey, said his client agreed to admit to two “drug events” from 2017 and 2018, but no more. “We categorically deny and dispute any use of force by Mr. Nichols,” Harvey told Judge Whitaker. Under the deal, Nichols will not have to testify against other defendants or even agree to the “underlying factual basis” of the indictment, which alleges the defendants are part of a violent street gang called YSL. Harvey said the two drug charges were “sufficient” to “satisfy the elements of the offense” Nichols pleaded to.

Nichols had been charged with the 2022 murder of Shymel Drinks, an alleged associate of rival Atlanta rapper YFN Lucci. Shannon Stillwell, another co-defendant who remains on trial alongside Young Thug and two others, remains charged with murder in connection with Drinks’ death.

Huey and Nichols seemed to have the most influence the final round of plea negotiations which were sparked by an evidentiary error last week. After the accident, Judge Whitaker indicated she was considering granting a mistrial without prejudice, meaning prosecutors could retry the case. In the Oct. 23 evidence flub, rapper Wunnie “SlimeLife Shawty” Lee, a former defendant who had previously taken a plea deal, read to the jury part of an Instagram caption that should have been redacted. The editorial was a hashtag that read ‘Free Qua’. As soon as Lee read the hashtag, there was an audible reaction in the courtroom the livestream provided by Law and crime.

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Nichols’ defense immediately called for a mistrial with prejudice, saying the banned verdict could lead jurors to assume Nichols has previously spent time in custody. Prosecutors protested the mistrial, saying it was not clear who the “Qua” in the hashtag referred to. Both Nichols and Huey use “Qua” as an alias, so Huey’s team joined the annulment on the same grounds that it could be prejudicial.

“We’re not going to be able to unlock this bubble,” argued Nicole Westmoreland, an attorney on Nichols’ team. Judge Whitaker, who prosecutors scolded last month for the alleged assault of another witness, said she thought the accident was “sloppy” but ultimately a “mistake.” She said if she were to grant a mistrial, it would be without prejudice. She said another option was for prosecutors to come up with a jury instruction that would make it clear the hashtag did not refer to any of the defendants. Prosecutors said they weren’t sure.

“What I’m trying to do is correct your sloppiness so that not everyone has wasted 10 to 12 months of their life on this trial,” Judge Whitaker responded. After sentencing Nichols on Tuesday, Judge Whitaker adjourned the case without further discussion. The abrupt end seemed to return the trial to the state of limbo that began last week. It quickly became clear that plea negotiations were underway.

Williams has pleaded not guilty to the eight charges filed against him under the indictment. The charges include conspiracy to violate Georgia’s RICO law, participation in a street gang, drug possession and possession of a machine gun. He was not charged with any of the three murders mentioned in the indictment. Prosecutors allege he founded and ran YSL, also known as Young Slime Life. Williams, meanwhile, says YSL is a record label called Young Stoner Life and that he doesn’t even know some of the 28 defendants named in the indictment.

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Williams has been in prison since May 2022 with successive judges refuse to grant him bail. Of the 27 others initially charged, nine settled before the current trial began, and 12 others will be tried separately. Prosecutors dropped their case against one suspect after he was convicted of murder in an unrelated case.

Douglas Weinstein, one of Kendrick’s attorneys, posted a video on social media after Nichols’ plea Tuesday. “So you saw Mr. Nichols argue today in the YSL case. It is clear that Mr. Kendrick did not plead,” Weinstein said. “We continue to fight for his life. We will continue to ensure that the state continues to defend its position beyond reasonable doubt.”