Law&Crime Sidebar - Young Thug RICO Trial: Full Breakdown of Charges 'YSL' Gang Faces

Episode Date: January 4, 2023

Rapper Young Thug and "YSL" associates are facing various criminal charges in their RICO trial, which began on Wednesday. The Law&Crime Network's Jesse Weber and Cathy Russon break down all the details and events leading up to the trial. LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Logan HarrisGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&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. views 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. You acknowledge that you've been accused of and arrested for robbing women. Yes. You acknowledge that you are the same person referred to as Tick and the song by Young Thug entitled you in the verse, she getting robbed by tick. Yes. The trial of rapper Young Thug is about to begin. Law and Crime Network executive producer Kathy Russon comes on to do a deep dive on all that we know and what has happened in this major case.

Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Long Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. All right, let's talk about the trial of Grammy award-winning rapper Young Thug, which at the time of this recording is about to start jury selection. This is down in Atlanta, Georgia. The rapper whose real name is Jeffrey Lamar Williams is facing eight criminal counts, including conspiracy to violate the state's RICO or racketeering law. Essentially, he and what was originally 28 other defendants, although that number has been whittled down to, I believe, 14 now.

I'll explain why in a minute. They were all charged in this large sweeping indictment. The claim is that Williams co-founded a street gang called YSL or Young Slyne Life back in 2012 that absolutely wreaked havoc on the city. Now, if we have people charged with everything from attempted armed robbery to murder, there is a lot to unpack. There is a lot to understand

and there's a lot to break down in terms of what this case is, what has already happened. So to help me, I want to bring in a very special guest, somebody who has been following this case very closely, someone who the Twitter community has now dubbed Young Russ, Law and Crime Network's executive producer, Kathy Russ and Kathy, great to have you.

here. I'm not going to call you young Russ, even though I do like that name for you. I mean, who would have ever thought this is where I would land? How far you've come? How far you've come? So I think it's good to start with giving, I gave a brief synopsis of what this case is about, but can you tell us basically generally speaking, what is the allegation against these defendants, specifically young thug? For young thug himself, not only participation in a criminal street gang, but being a leader slash founder slash in the management part of the street gang to further crimes as in murder a sweeping indictment basically to get all of these members of YSL or at least 28 of them charged with various crimes and

Jeffrey Williams is kind of the lead in the head of that and so his his charges really have to do with furthering the criminal activity like promoting it that kind of thing are you tired of all the ads on the sides of websites. You know exactly what I'm talking about. I can't tell you how many times I get targeted for hair product ads. What are they trying to say? That my hair isn't perfect? Is that what we're going at right now? Well, these ads, they target things that we like because our IP addresses are public. Any website you visit knows your IP address and where you're coming from. But if you get a VPN, specifically Nord VPN, you can mask your IP address. No more annoying ads. No more annoying hair product ads. I can get my confidence back. You can now shield your data from snoopers, cyber attacks. So what you do is you get NordVPN at NordVPN.com slash law and crime and you'll receive NordVPN's two-year plan plus four months free. Again, that's at NordVPN.com slash law and crime. Something else. It is risk free with Nord's 30-day money back guarantee. What is the main defense been? Because I've seen it's been what, that this is not a street gang at all. So he claims this is not a gang, that he's a musician,

is an artist, and Young Slime Life is not Young Slime Life and that he has a record deal. And he's not a member of a gang. The problem is, as we'll get into, he's got some of his closest people that have said that it's a gang. And that has started happening in plea deals. Defendant and his fellow YSL associates committed the drive-by shooting reference

in sections three and four above, on behalf of YSL and to increase the notoriety, reputation, and fear of YSL. Number six, defendant admitted committing and was convicted of, aggravated assault, and participation in criminal street gang activity, among other charges, for his participation in the drive-by shooting referenced in sections 3, 4, and 5 above. Number seven, defendant was told by another YSL associate that immediately after the murder of Donovan Thomas Jr. YS.L. Associates met at the McDonald's on Cleveland Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia to discuss the murder. Number eight, defendant personally knows that one or more YSL

associates committed the murder of Donovan Thomas Jr. on behalf of YSL. Number nine, on January the 10th, 2015 after the murder of Donovan Thomas Jr. Defendant and other YSL associates gathered at the home of Jeffrey Williams, aka Young Thug, who gave defendant and other YSL those years cash money to lay low. Kathy, who is this sledge individual and why is he so important? Well, he's going to testify. Now, in some of these plea deals, some of the defendants have been given the right to invoke the fifth, and some have not, which is very interesting. He does not have the right to invoke the fifth on any statements he signed off on on his plea deal. Well, those include that after drive-by shootings, they went to Jeffrey William, aka Young Thugs Home,

who gave them cash money to Laylow, that's no, that's not a good fact for Jeffrey Williams. He's going to testify to drive-by shootings, two murders. After the murder of rival gang member Antonio, I'm sorry, not Antonio, Donovan Thomas. Thank you so much. After the murder of rival gang member, Donovan Thomas is when he says that they went to Young Thugs' house. so he's very he's very crucial to the prosecution's case of tying look let's be let's just be honest they want Jeffrey Williams the state wants Jeffrey Williams that's where they're making deals with other people they want the head they want the lead and they want him and so here

sledge is going to testify and it's not going to be good facts for Jeffrey Williams yeah so he got 15 years probation people might be looking at that and saying it's so lenient I will be of the opinion that, like you said, they need several of these members to testify against the head of this organization, the alleged hedge. Or it could also be that the case they have against some of these members might not be as strong as they need it to be. And if you charge an entire, you charge 28 people and the cases are weak against some and strong against others, the whole case could fall apart. We've seen that happen before. Now, that's a possibility. Let's go to Antonio Sumlin. What do we know about him? Yes.

Do you understand that you are not allowed to possess or use a firearm while on probation? Yes, ma'am. Do you understand that you are not a United States citizen, a guilty conviction will affect your immigration status, and will result in deportation, just like a conviction at a trial order, and that this is true regardless of any advice by your return or anyone else? If you are, you can get deported. Are you a U.S. citizen? Oh, yes, ma'am.

Okay, so what do we know about Antonio Sumlin, Kathy? So Antonio Sumlin, a.k.k. Obama. is his street name he takes a plea also is only just sentenced to probation a lot of people are talking about these sweet deals these guys are walking out on um could it be a sweet deal maybe can you can members of this alleged gang stay clean for 15 years and not violate probation 15 years is a long time so i hear i see talk about that all to on social media sites that prosecute that it could be prosecutors think that they're going to end up back behind bars at some point anyway. So Sumlin pleaded guilty to the RICO Act, which all of them are charged with,

two counts of conspiracy to commit a crime and participation in a street gang. And he also will testify. Now, these ones that, again, like I said, the ones that will test. Now, I have to just say this. The prosecutor words this very interesting, when she reads out the plea deal, it's if you are called to testify at any time. I will say that we don't have any guarantees that every single one of these people that took a plea will be called to testify. And we do know that some probably won't because at least one has been

given the right to invoke the fifth as far as I could tell on everything. Right. So there's Quantavius Greyer, who I believe is the brother of young thug. He pleaded guilty last week. And he was sentenced to a mix of time served and probation. I think as part of his deal that if he's called to testify, he has to testify truthfully, but it is his right. to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. So he can do that if he wants to, not an option for some other defendants. And the difference in his wording is like what you just said, that for some of these others, they cannot, the wording was they cannot invoke the fifth on any statements in this plea deal.

So they have written out statements that they've initialed, so typed out statements, whatever, that the prosecutors have them initial. They have testified truthfully those and are not allowed to invoke the fifth. And then we have Trontavius Stevens. You also acknowledge that on October, excuse me, on February 4th, 2021, you participated in a group chat with fellow YSL founder, Jeffrey Williams, aka A Young Thug, and YSEL Associates, Woonie Lee, aka Islam Like Shorty, where in Jeffrey Williams stated, YSel rule the work, world kid, y'all just start bringing me the money. May and y'all stop playing with me. Do you acknowledge that? Yeah.

Do you acknowledge that on May 13, 2021, you participated in another group chat with fellow YASL founder Jeffrey Williams, aka Young Thug, and Wiesel Associates, Martinez Arnold, Miles Farley, Quantavius Greer, Antonio Sumlin, Mooney Lee, where Jeffrey Williams asked, y'all ain't beat him up or shot him yet, then states, y'all getting soft. Yes. So Trontavius Stevens seems very important for this case. That's, there's a problem. They have group chats.

They have group chats that Jeffrey Williams is in saying things like, you haven't shot him yet. You all are getting soft. That's what I guess people would call receipts. The prosecutor has receipts in this case where they have put things in writing. Here's another thing about Stevens, his, aka Tick, he goes by Tick or Slug. There's a song. Jeffrey Williams has a song called You, but it's EW. U.E, I believe. And in that, it talks about Tick robbing a woman or women. And in the plea deal,

the prosecutor has him acknowledged that he has been accused of and are charged of robbing women in the past. This is important because prosecutor wants to bring in song lyrics. The song lyrics that Young Thug is used, this is a big sticking point. And it's still an outstanding motion by the defense that has not been solved yet because they went to argue this motion last week. And as a side note, there was a COVID outbreak in the jail where all these guys are. And a bunch of them are COVID positive and or in quarantine. So because of that, they couldn't have this hearing on the motion. Song lyrics. Can they use song, is song lyrics real life? Or is it just artistry? But they are tying this specific one with tick to the song lyrics about at least committing a crime of robbing women. Yeah, even people in the hip-hop community have been very against using rap lyrics and criminal cases. But Fannie Willis, who is the district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia, says, if you decide to admit your crimes over a beat, I'm going to use it. Let's move on.

I want to go to another important individual in this case who, and just to give everybody an idea, Martinez, Little Duke Arnold, oney, slime life, shoddy Lee, and then Walter Murphy, they've all pleaded guilty as we've been talking about people taking these deals. But now let's talk about fellow YSL rapper Gunna, whose real name is Sergio Kitchens. Kathy, he has an interesting role in this case, too. And do you acknowledge the following statement? I recognize except and deeply regret that my talent and music indirectly furthered YSEL the game to the detriment of my community. YSEL as a game must end. Is that your statement or acknowledgement?

Yes. So he took an Alford plea. He's probably the most famous next to Williams as being known. He took an Alford plea, which means that he does not admit to being guilty, but he admits there's enough evidence that a jury could find him guilty. That's basically what an Alford plea is, and he's came out and said, I did not snitch, I will not snitch, and I will not testify. In his plea, he does have the right to invoke the fifth. So I would say it's likely he's not going to testify. we have his statements made in court. They're recorded by WSB. I'm not sure he knew that was happening because it wasn't a traditional camera setup. It was sort of a last minute hearing as for the WSB reporter, I believe, did it with his cell phone. And you can find that on YouTube on WSB.

But it has him admitting to certain things. And this is what he's admitting. He acknowledges that YSL is a gang. Number one, important. He acknowledges that some members of the gang have committed crimes. And in his statement, I quote, he says, I recognize, accept, and deeply regret that my talent and music indirectly furthered YSL, the gang, to the detriment of my community. YSL is a gang and must end. That is a statement from Gunna that he signed off on. I think that, I think he didn't know that that recording had happened when he made statements. I don't know, but I think it's pretty evident that I don't know how Jeffrey Williams can claim YSL is not a gang when now we have multiple members of YSL that are close to him saying it's a gang.

Real quick, Kathy, what's the value of him if he's not forced to testify? I mean, I think the case against him might have been weak. That's what I think. Correct. He only had, he only had the one count, the RICO counts. That's the top count. The RICO count is the top count. All 28 are charged with that.

There are some that are only charged with that and nothing else. And Gunna was one of them. And so it must have been a weak case against him. Now, talking about people who take deals, we saw at least one person being offered what seemed like a really good deal and turned it down. I'm talking about Tenquarius Mender, aka Nard. What can you tell us about what deal was offered to him and this rejection? And I'm sure that Ms. Fagan, she's a very fine attorney, seen her work. But trials, there's one thing about trials.

uncertainty you don't know what's going to happen so you got to beat four counts if you don't beat them what will happen is under this A and C recidivus statute you I have to under the law sentence you to the maximum sentence and then whatever I send you to you serve to the debt to the door that's not anything I have any discretion over it's not anything because I don't like you or because what you're being charged with or whatever those have nothing to do with anything. That's what the state of Georgia, the legislature has mandated that I'll sentence you to. So one of the things a plea does is it, you know what you get,

it caps your exposure. So, and what the state's telling you today is if you take the plea today, this is what you're going to get, and this is what I probably sentence you to, and you're done. You've got to decide that for yourself. You can't be worried about any of these other folks that are attached to this indictment. The last day of pre-trial hearings last week, the prosecutor stood up and said she has three more plea offers on the table. One was two, Tancuarius Mender, aka Nard, aka Stunna. He is facing a maximum 50 years, 50 years in prison. His offer was leave today, 16 years to serve one year, which be commuted. So he would have 15 years on probation and could walk out. He would not take the deal, and the judge sounded shocked.

Why do you think he turned it down? I don't know. I mean, I think people are shocked that some of these guys have taken a plea. I don't know if the whole, you know, snitches get stitches thing. Members of a gang don't turn on each other. They don't talk. I don't know if he's standing strong in that. Yeah, because I think that's why the judge said to him, you know, you can't do it because

of other people who are in this indictment. You have to do what's right for you. And we know that Durante Bebby, I might be saying his name incorrectly, A.K. Bay. He faces a life sentence for his crimes. And there was talk about whether or not, I mean, he seemed to still to reject the deal that was offered to him too, although he's kind of on the fence about it, right? So he reject, okay, let me just tell you that I'm not going to say we know 100% sure about Bebe or about Mender because, well, this is what we know. The prosecutor said she has three plea offers. She said they expire at the end of business today. She was very clear about that.

The judge had all three of these guys go back and talk and there was like a two hour delay or something in the hearing. At the end of the day, they came back on the record and only handled the one plea deal. So that's it. We never heard another word about BB or Bebby or Mender. So we have to assume they rejected it because it was off the table at end of business day. And they ended court around 6 p.m. And those two never came back with a plea. Now, Bebe was offered 20 years.

he's facing 90 years faces life not sorry life plus 90 years okay forever he was offered 20 years but only served six if you're facing life plus 90 you were offered six years and you turned it down it's shocking to me so i don't know if these guys just think this case is going to fall apart on everyone or what is happening but they're their reputation you know they don't want to sometimes that's more important i would guess i guess and talk and talking about reputation Somebody did something kind of interesting in court. We were in the middle of, I believe it was young thugs attorney making an argument about evidence and whether or not, I don't even know how to make a joke about this.

Something happened, Kathy. What happened? Well, as we know, in the world of COVID and post-COVID, there's a lot of Zoom hearings going on. And it's true in this case, there's some people in person, but there's also a Zoom. And some of the attorneys and attorneys partners and whoever else are allowed to have this Zoom link and can be there via Zoom listening in on. hearings and it's on a monitor and it's on a laptop on the lectern that's in that is where the

attorney stand and as he's talking there's some pornographic stuff that starts going on the zoo and it says free young thug which you know and it's very graphic and you can see we've blurted you can find it on our YouTube page that you don't see a close up or anything because it's like the screen that's in front of him and the cameras on the other side of the room but um as we know we've had there were a lot of zoom hearings that were bombed like that during covid um and so somehow that happened and the only reason it got brought to our attention because like i said it wasn't that noticeable it wasn't like the camera was right on the zoom except the judge said um that's it we are creating a new zoom link attorneys listen to me that is only to be given out to attorneys in this case that's and so i was

like wait what just happened and we have rewind and figure out what it just happened oh and we saw it we saw Now, just to give you an idea, this has all been happening even before the trial started. The trial is going to, they say jurors are going to be on that for six to nine months. They sent out 600 jury summons. They get paid $25 hours a day. It's going to be tough to see if they can even, what kind of jury they'll ultimately get. But we will continue to follow this trial here on law and crime. And I know that if you want up to date, updates about what is happening, you can go to Kathy

Russon on her Twitter to follow the latest. young Russ. Thanks so much for taking the time. Thanks, Jesse. And that's all we have for you here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.