Law&Crime Sidebar - Atlanta Rapper Faces Prison Stint After Guilty Plea to RICO Charge

Episode Date: January 24, 2024

During a sentencing hearing, YFN Lucci, whose real name is Rayshawn Bennett, apologized to the family of his friend, James Adams, who died during a drive-by shooting that Bennett allegedly participated in. Bennett had faced 13 charges as part of a large RICO indictment filed by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber discusses Bennett’s plea agreement with his defense attorney, Drew Findling.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. First off, I want to say my heart goes out to my friend James Adam and his family. Another Atlanta rapper charged in a large RICO indictment by Fulton County prosecutors decides to take a plea deal instead of going to trial. We're breaking down what YFN Lucci is accused of doing and his defense attorney, Drew Finling, comes on to talk about how long his client will actually spend behind bars. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. So we have a development in a different Georgia RICO case.

There are two. There's a lot of RICO cases happening in Georgia. That's for a different discussion, but no, this isn't about Young Thug or YSL, which we have covered extensively here on Sidebar. This is actually about rapper YFN Lucci. His real name is Ray Sean Bennett. Some of his most popular songs that you might know are Key to the Streets and Every Day We Lit. And he was facing the possibility of life in prison for his alleged role in a drive-by shooting from 2020. A prosecutor say that Bennett and three other men drove to an area of Atlanta that was controlled by a rival gang, As Bennett drove, two people in the car allegedly started shooting, and people outside of the car shot back.

And in the aftermath of all of this, 28-year-old James Adams, a passenger in the car with Mr. Bennett, was shot and killed. Now, according to investigators, Adams' body was actually left in the street. Prosecutors charged Bennett with 13 counts, including felony murder, in a large 105-count 70-page gang and racketeering indictment. The Fulton County District Attorney's Office says that the YFN Collective is a gang. gang associated with the Bloods. Now, Bennett said in an interview several years ago that YFN stands for Young Fly N-Word. Investigators say that YFN and YSL Young Slime Life are rival gangs in Atlanta. As I mentioned, we've been following the YSL RICO case here on Sidebar.

That's where Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffrey Lamar Williams, is believed to be the leader of this YSL gang. He and multiple alleged co-conspirators are on trial in the same Fulton County courthouse on a different floor, very busy building. Now, that trial has been underway for months, and it's expected to last for at least a year. But jury selection had been underway in Ray Sean Bennett's case when he decided to enter a plea on Tuesday. And while he faced multiple charges, Bennett was only required to plead guilty to a single gang charge, the count of violating the Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act.

But this plea has many requirements attached to it. Do you understand that this is a negotiated plea, which means the state will recommend the sentence of under count 69, the recommended sentence is 20, serve 10, balanced probated, and the special conditions of probationists are no street gang activity, no contact with any known street gang members or associates, no contact with the co-defendants, Reginald Carter, Artes Carter, Justin Ushery, DeMonte, Time, Thomas, Tadreicus Glass, Rayshin, I'm sorry, Rayvon Boyd, Leroy Pitts, Randavius Hawkin, and Derek Adams. No guns or replica guns. No gang affiliation or conduct associated with gangs on social media. You must be gangfully employed in no further violations of the law. Do you understand that those are the conditions? Yes.

Is it your decision to waive these rights and answer a guilty plea because you are in fact guilty? Yes. How do you plead to count 69 in indictment 23 S.C. 188-921? Guilt. And before the judge officially handed down the sentence, Mr. Bennett had a chance to speak to the court. First off, I want to say my heart goes out to my friend James Adam and his family. Also, I want to apologize to my family and my friend. point them through this stressful process.

And I would also like to apologize to the court. And that's it. The 32-year-old rapper, Mr. Bennett, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but listen to this, with 10 years to serve in prison and 10 years on probation. But listen to this carefully. Judge Thomas Cox, Jr., also noted that part of that plea is something that he had never even seen before. As a condition of this sentence, the state has...

has also agreed, and I believe this is the first time I've ever seen this, the state has agreed to write a letter to the board of pardons and parole stating that the state will not object to you being released from the Department of Corrections the first time that you become eligible for parole or after serving one-third of your prison sentence, whichever comes first. So let's be clear. Bennett has been locked up since 2021. He's going to get credit for time served.

and since he could be paroled after serving only part of his sentence, he might be out in just a few months if he behaves himself. Well, we have a special guest. Bennett's defense attorney, Drew Finling, is joining us right now to talk about his client and this major plea deal. So glad to have you on. Pleasure to meet you. I've been following your career for quite some time as a, you know,

not only as an attorney, but as a media analyst and being someone who's been following these high profile cases. Pleasure to have you here on Sidebar. Happy to be here. So pretty incredible. I mean, your client was facing the potential. of life in prison without the possibility of parole. And now my understanding is he could walk a free man in a few months.

Walk us through how this deal happened. Sure. So look, we've been in a battle since January of 2021. It started out as a felony murder case. And then, of course, as you know, it became this RICO case, this massive RICO case. And unfortunately, we had some bond issues. And Ray Bennett is, you know, Lucci, but to us, he's Ray. Ray's been in jail for a few years now, and we've been litigating this case nonstop.

Of course, if you remember, because you followed these cases, it started as, you know, this big case in Fulton County. Then there was the YSL indictment, then the special purpose grand jury regarding the election. And, you know, we just became another huge case. But during that entire period of time, we've been fighting, fighting, fighting. And then, of course, YSL went to trial before us, which was kind of crazy because we were an older case. We've been trying to get in trial. We finally got set for January 8th of this year. And you so accurately point out, Mr. Bennett was looking at the possible life without the possibility of

parole. We continued to hammer away. We were in our third week of jury selection. And the only offer that is on the record, at least, that we got, as you know, took place. So I was in trial in San Francisco in a federal trial, and I received an offer while I was in trial for 17 years in jail, but to all the offenses. And of course, any offense related to the felony murder would have required an 85% service, which meant Ray would have had to on that deal serve around 15 years, maybe a couple months shy of 15 years. That was never going to happen. We wanted to go to trial. And then these conversations started developing in the last few days. And the next thing we know, every account is dismissed other than one associate of a gang count, which according to our

parole guidelines because he has no criminal record. It's extremely clear. And it became clear on the record. And to the credit of the prosecution, they put it on the record as well that he could be parole eligible in as soon as one third of the time, which would only put him around three and a half months away. And as part of the deal, they agreed to write a letter to the parole board that assuming he behaves himself in the next three and a half months, they have no objection to his immediate release. Clearly a lot of legal issues at stake here in this case, but also a lot of legal issues come up in personal injury cases when you think about it. Yeah, if you get hurt, not only is it scary, it can be really complicated. And that is where Morgan and Morgan, a proud sponsor of

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Morgan and Morgan. It is absolutely free unless you win. You can submit a claim at forthepeople.com slash LC sidebar or by dialing pound law that's pound 529 on your phone. All right, let's get back into it. You have to break it down for our viewers and our listeners about was there a problem in the prosecution's case? Was there a deficit in them able to prove something like felony murder? Because people might be looking at this and saying, I mean, it seems such a benefit, so beneficial to your side. And for them, it must have been a problem in their case that they didn't want to take this to trial. Yeah, so I talked about that at the plea yesterday.

So the felony murder doctrine, as you know, if there's the allegation of any felony and somebody dies as a result thereof, you can get charged with felony murder. So it was the person, Mr. Adams, that was in our client's car, that was shot and killed by a third party. And so under the felony murder doctrine, they actually charge Ray with his friend's death. Right. And so we were very clear with them that we spared no expense. We hide the best experts in the United States, the best engineers to put together the videography and analyze it. And at best they can say you couldn't see who initiated the showing.

But the possibility was there that, in fact, they were the people in Mr. Bennett's car. In other words, they were defending themselves. We were very clear with the other side, strapping on, get ready, because we are spending big time money to bring in not silver. medal winners, not bronze medal winners when it comes to expert testimony, but the best people possibly on the planet Earth are going to testify for us. Who do you have? And sometimes, as a defense attorney, even though we don't have the burden, it's important to let the other side know, you know, get ready. It's not going to be an easy road. And whether they took that into consideration, I'll have no idea. But we decided to freely exchange that information and perhaps it benefited us.

And to be clear, the charge that he has pled guilty to, because, you know, now the felony murder is not, is not on the tape. Fellant murder is gone. The racketeering is gone. What is he admitting to? Let's be clear about what your client is admitting to as part of pleading guilty to this one charge. Yeah. So the language in the indictment talks of it being an associate. Unfortunately, in these gang statutes, you know, I talk about this around, around the country all the time to lawyers.

You don't have to really be a gang member. But if you associate, right? if you associate with a gang. And so he pled guilty to account that he associated with a gang and some specific activity. But he never agreed that he is a gang member because he's not. But the plea was associating with gang members. Is he going to have to testify in this trial? No.

That's a big no. That is as big as you could take NO and put him together and get a huge highlighter. That's always been an issue that Ray Bennett, Lucci, is never going to testify against anybody, for anybody, against anybody. He won't even testify at a traffic violation. That is not part of this at all. And if anybody tries to issue a subpoena, we'll file a motion to quash because people can put him up. But other than saying his name, he's going to fold his arms and want nothing to do with any legal proceeding. So that's very, very clear that he's not a witness at all.

Anybody that tries to create that rumor is really doing an injustice to themselves and everybody involved in this. It's not part of this deal at all. So what is his perspective on this alleged gang? Is it the idea that he was associating with the wrong people? He was in the wrong place at the wrong time? What's his perspective on this idea that this is a criminal organization? Yeah, so the only thing that I can really echo is,

the sentiment that he expressed in court yesterday is that he cared about Mr. Adams that died and he continues to express his heartfelt condolences to Mr. Adams family. I've had the opportunity to talk to these folks. They're lovely people. And of course, he feels terrible about Mr. Adams being killed. How has Mr. Benner feeling, considering this deal has now been reached? What's his reaction. Well, you know, this is a unique jury selection process. You know, when you think about a trial, generally we try so many federal cases and as big as our federal cases are, we try them all over the nation. As big as the cases are, you know, we pick a jury in four hours in federal cases because generally they're judge-controlled jury selection. But even in a state case,

you know, maybe a two-day jury selection. Sometimes I've been in high-profile cases that stretches four days. And we were into our third week. And much to the credit of this judge, there was really no limit what he let us do in terms of questioning these jurors as long as we complied with the law. And so we had 160 question questionnaire that was filled out in early December. So we had a month to examine these questionnaires. And so there was just robust questioning. And so he was really engaged in that process, as were all the, lawyers in the case. And to go from that to the case is over, we actually went through 115 juror, potential jurors qualified about 30 of them, a little over 30 of them. It was a real

change for him from, you know, from an emotional standpoint. His focus really went to his family and to his children. I think he's anxious to get out and to continue his career. I know I was in an event last night and there was a lot of talk about his career and there's a real thirst for his music. I don't really usually pay attention to that, but there is this real love for his music. And I mean, I've got phone calls from some of the most famous people in the music world last night calling and and letting me know how excited people are to hear him perform again. His focus, however, is on his four children. He just wants to get out and to continue parenting. I can understand that emotional roller coaster. I mean, we cover these kinds of cases all the time where,

You know, you go through the whole jury selection process. You go through all the evidence leading up. You anticipate a trial. And then all of a sudden, a deal is reached and there's no more trial. So I completely understand that. Were you confident in this jury that was going to be impaneled that was going to be hearing this case? I mean, you talked about the evidence that you were going to present, but how did you feel about the jury that was to be selected? Yeah, so that's a great, great question.

Because six floors below us was the YSL trial, there was massive confusion. What's that? I've never heard of it. Well, there was this massive confusion for over two weeks of people during jury selection, both sides. You know, the prosecutors, the defense attorneys, we endlessly how to clear up the confusion. No, no, this is not the YSL trial. This is YFN. And so that being said, Judge Cox gave us an incredible opportunity.

He did not try to shut us down. As long as we complied with the law, he really let us do deep dives with these folks. And it was a really interesting group. You know, Fulton County is the center of the world right now, in the legal world. I don't need to name the cases for anybody to know, but it is the center of the legal universe as we speak. And I think a good number of these potential jurors were very well aware of that. Now, did they want to sit with us for a projected three months? Not so much.

And that's a problem. And that's a problem that we in the legal world need to look at moving forward. And that is when you have a three-month, a six-month, a nine-month trial, are you going to really get a fair cross-section of the community? And the answer is absolutely not. Can you sit for three months? You can't. I can't. I would say 95% of the people in my social and professional network cannot do that. And so that means that really interferes with getting a fair cross-section of the community, which is what you're supposed to have in a jury trial. So in other words, you're saying the way that these racketeering complex cases are being prosecuted, maybe it has to be reexamined. I mean, and you feel free, when you're looking at the YSL case, and, you know, if you don't want to mention it, but like when you look at the YSL case and you look at your case, is it the way that it's being prosecuted, so many overt acts, so many different players, do you think that there's a problem here? because look, I'll be very honest, on sidebar, we've covered the YSL case, the jury selection that's taken almost a year, that took almost a year, the ups and the downs with the jurors,

the defendants, the defense attorneys. Circus has been a word that has been used. Do you think that that is because of necessarily the way these cases are being prosecuted? Yeah, 100%. It's not even up for discussion. The template that is these, that for these indictments is ridiculous. and the endless list of overt acts under this BS that you want to tell the full story. You can always tell the full story and everything at life, but at some point you have to edit, right?

I love, I'm a voracious reader, and I'm sure that some of the 300-page books that I read started as 550, but got edited down to a 300-page book. I'm sure some of the movies that we love, with the exception of Oppenheimer, started out as three and a half hour movies and get cut down to two-hour movies. At some point, you have to be efficient in how you do that. I know, for example, we tried in the month of October, we spent a month in trial and a federal case in San Francisco in the same courtroom where they did the Hells Angels cases. And so because we got to know the courthouse for a month and, you know, leading up to the trial, we found out what the feds did in that case is because it was such a massive

case, they made Hells Angels 1, House Angels 2, and Hells Angels 3. They did three separate trials. So when you talk to the lawyers, you know, we'd be having coffee during a break and someone say, oh yeah, you know, you're Drew Findling, you're trying that case. Yeah, yeah, I was in that courtroom. I was in Hells Angels 2. I was in Hells Angels 1. And everybody to a woman and man said it was very efficient what they did, what the feds did in that case with the cooperation of the court. And that is break it down. And so what has, what has. happens is when you have cases like YSEL, and I don't know the specifics because I'm too busy with my own thing. But at some point, the government, in this case, the state, it has to think

about severance, right? They have to say, you know, we're going to sever and we're going to do it a more efficient way. Because you've got to be sensitive to getting that fair cross-section of the community in terms of jurors. You've got to be concerned about court personnel. You've got to be concerned about the economic well-being of the lawyers. I mean, I've heard that one judge pulled my law partner over and said to her, you know, we had a break and she reported, and she said, yeah, I heard you're going to be in trial for a few months. And this judge said to her, I'm worried about the economic well-being of our criminal defense bar. Because it's really impossible to for 99.999% of the American population to retain counsel for a year trial or a two-year

trial or whatever it is. And I don't care if you get time off. No one's going to want to hire you. If your son or your daughter is charged with the crime, are you going to want to hire a lawyer that says I'm in trial for the next year and a half? Oh, I get Fridays off. Nobody's going to want to do that and I really feel bad for my colleagues that are going through that and sometimes as members of the bar we need to think about one another even if we're on the other side um you know and so it's a concern that I have and look you mentioned the the YSL trial which was happening would you say the floor above or floors below in the same floor floors below they were on the first floor we were on the seventh floor there is people not only mistake the cases between your client and YSL but there is a

connection that I was just hoping you could elaborate on in that, and my understanding is that the prosecutors in that case had said that two associates of YSL were trying to get Young Thug to Greenlight, basically a hit on YFN Lucci. Is there anything you could expand upon that or what your client thinks about that? No, I didn't give that a moment's thought. Yeah. I mean, we were too busy in our case and whatever they were saying over there, that was going on in that case.

We were just laser focused on our case. No commentary in that. I wish everybody in that case the best. I truly wish everybody the best in that case and haven't given it any thought whatsoever. And our indictment certainly didn't have really anything from my perspective. I wasn't going to, if we were going to try the case, I wasn't going to utter one word about that case.

I was too busy focusing on Ray Bennett. And that's fair enough. And speaking of your client, my understanding is you requested first offender status. from Mr. Bennett, but that was denied. What were you hoping for? Yeah, I just, look, I'm old school when it comes to that. I think everybody deserves. I've been on a private level. I'm former president of the National Association of criminal defense lawyers. I'm a criminal legal reformer, and I always say, I don't say criminal justice reformer because there's too much injustice to qualify it with justice. I believe everybody, I believe in forgive and forget. I believe

everybody has the, should have the opportunity to clear their record. And so given the nature of the charge he pled to. I wanted him to be able to get on the other side of this. And one day, and it would have been years away, and say that he was not a convicted felon, the prosecution objected to it. That's their prerogative. I personally don't get it. And here's the reason I don't get it, because under our first offender statute, you violate it. You get freaking hammered more so than you would if you were just on regular probation. And I guess it was just pro forma for them to say, they didn't want it. I wanted him to have the opportunity. It helps a little bit as an international performer in traveling. But, you know, the one thing I say to people all the time,

the amazing thing about the musical world is they set the bar on how to forgive than everybody else. Because you can get on the other side of this, like my client, Gucci, you know, Gucci got out. He sat down for a few years, did federal time, and did better than he ever did beforehand and you know history is replete with folks in this world that had some trouble and then their fan base forgives him and so first offender won't really impact him as much it will be average person but i felt nevertheless it was the right thing to do and i'm sorry he didn't get that yeah so his criminal record will not be uh you know extinguished there for that but um real quick before i wrap things up you talked about um the potential of him being released

and what his life would look like he's spending he wants to folks focus on his family, potentiality, an interest of him moving on with the music, the music career. But just to be clear, how likely is it that he could be released in three and a half months? What's the chances of that happening? Yeah, so that's a great question. So look, we, you know, we did our due diligence and he is absolutely going to be eligible. A critical factor is that the district attorney's office is writing that letter. And that's key. I think you may have heard that Judge Cox said on the record. He never seen that in his career and he's been on the bench for quite some time. And they actually reviewed that on the record that

assuming over the next three and a half months, he doesn't get any trouble while he's incarcerated. They will take the position that he should be released at the first available date. And they actually put on there the one, they actually set on the record the one third of the service time, which would be 40 months. And so he's at around 36 and a half right now. And so that's really important. And then, of course, the other thing is that Mr. Adams family, the gentleman that died, has always stood behind our client, going back to the beginning of the case. And so that really covers all concerns. You never know, but I wouldn't know any reason why they wouldn't, because the state was very clear on the record that he did not hold a gun. He did not possess a gun

at the time of this. They put on the record to their credit, all the right things so that he could get released in three and a half months were you surprised that the prosecution did i mean the judge seemed surprised but i mean why do you think the prosecution said we're not objecting to him being released i think it was part of the negotiation process and i think to you know there was certain condition precedent that we had in order for us to shut down this case and that was at the top of the priority list well listen drew fendling thanks so much for coming on congratulations to you and your team and your client uh it was great to talk to you talk about this case would love to have you back on to talk about other cases that come up in the field, but I know you're a busy

man. So thank you so much for coming here on Sidebar. Appreciate it. Thank you, man. All right, everybody. That's all we have for you right here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. Speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.