Young Thug pleads guilty in Georgia's longest-running criminal trial

ATLANTA — After nearly two and a half years behind bars, Atlanta rapper Young Thug has pleaded guilty in his sprawling gang and racketeering trial which has become the longest in state history.

But the musician’s legal team and Fulton County prosecutors “reached an impasse” over what his punishment should be, Judge Paige Reese Whitaker said in court Thursday.

In a risky move, they are entering into a non-negotiated — or blind — plea and leaving the final sentencing decision up to her. It was not immediately clear when that would happen.

The state recommended a sentence of 45 years, 25 to serve in custody and another 20 on probation for the Grammy-winning musician, whose real name is Jeffery Williams.

That recommendation came after Williams and his legal team rejected a deal that would have allowed him to be released from jail Thursday in exchange for a 15-year probation term. Prosecutors said the rapper and his defense counsel turned down the offer because they wouldn’t agree to the special conditions of the deal.

Instead, he pleaded no contest to one count each of conspiring to violate the state’s RICO act and participating in criminal street gang activity, meaning he neither admitted nor denied those charges. But he pleaded guilty six other charges he faced, including a gang count, three counts of violating Georgia’s controlled substances act, possession of a machine gun and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

Lead prosecutor Adriane Love said Thursday that authorities found marijuana, codeine and cocaine during a search of Williams’ home, as well as a semiautomatic gun equipped with a “switch” that allowed it to fire more rapidly.

Love read aloud some of Young Thug’s lyrics, which the state has used as evidence against him. She accused the musician of rapping “about the crimes that YSL members and co-conspirators committed.”

She also detailed some of the overt acts listed in the indictment, including the January 2015 killing of rival gang member Donovan Thomas outside an Atlanta barbershop.

Williams appeared nervous as he stood with his attorneys in first-floor courtroom of the Fulton County Courthouse, where he spent countless hours over the past 23 months.

Williams’ attorney, Brian Steel, blasted the prosecution for the way they’ve tried the case up to this point, accusing them of being dishonest in court while his client languished in jail without bond like a “hostage.”

“The state has misrepresented for two years,” Steel said. “They have hidden evidence, they violated Brady, they have falsely accused Mr. Williams.”

He said he suggested that his client continue to fight the charges, taking the trial all the way to the very end in the hope of securing an acquittal.

“I told Mr. Williams I think we’re winning the trial and I think we should go to verdict but he told me, ‘I can’t wait another three months if there’s any possibility I could go home because I have children,’” Steel said.

His decision to plead guilty comes days after three of his co-defendants, Quamarvious Nichols, Rodalius Ryan and Marquavius Huey, also accepted plea deals in the case. Two defendants remain in the case.

Intense negotiations between prosecutors and defense attorneys have been going on for more than a week.

Prosecutors accuse the 33-year-old Williams of being the leader of Young Slime Life, which they contend is a criminal street gang responsible for a spate of robberies, shootings and the deaths of several people.

The rapper’s attorneys maintained that YSL, or Young Stoner Life, was simply the name of the star’s record label.

He was one of 28 people charged in the sweeping indictment that stunned Atlanta’s hip-hop community when it was handed down in May 2022.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis depicted the indictment as a crackdown on Atlanta’s gangs. She also defended her decision to use the rapper’s own lyrics against him, saying, “if you decide to admit your crimes over a beat, I’m going to use it.”

Of the 28 people initially charged, nine defendants took plea deals before trial began and 12 others are being tried separately. Another defendant, Cordarius Dorsey, had his charges dropped after being convicted of an unrelated murder.

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