This YSL defendant was acquitted, but will spend the holidays behind bars

Jozsef Papp, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Dec 20, 2024

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ATLANTA — One defendant in the long-running “Young Slime Life” case was acquitted of all charges by a jury earlier this month. However, he’s going to be stuck in jail for the holidays due to a legal technicality.

A Fulton County judge ruled Wednesday that, due to an outstanding warrant against Deamonte Kendrick, also known as rapper Yak Gotti, he can’t be free on bond for the charges he picked up while housed at the Union City jail annex during the YSL trial.

The warrant itself alleges a probation violation by Kendrick, who pleaded guilty to a number of gang, gun and drug charges in 2017. As part of that plea, he was sentenced to 15 years, commuted to time served, followed by eight years on probation with the remaining five years suspended.

He was then arrested and indicted, along with Atlanta rapper Young Thug, in May 2022 on gang and racketeering charges.

During the trial, Kendrick was accused of having contraband at the jail in March 2024 and being involved in an aggravated assault and battery of a fellow inmate in June 2024, which prosecutors said triggered a violation of his 2017 probation.

But the warrant was still not processed until Fulton County Superior Court Judge Melynee Leftridge signed it on Wednesday, a day after Kendrick’s bond hearing.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said in his order that Kendrick’s request for bond can’t be granted until the warrant issue is resolved. Kendrick’s next hearing, a plea and arraignment on the aggravated assault charges, has been scheduled for Jan. 8 in front of Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker.

Prosecutors alleged that Kendrick has had 13 jail incidents — 10 are allegations of violence and three are allegations of contraband — since he was arrested in May 2022.

Defense attorney Devin Rafus, who followed the YSL case, said the fact the warrant issue wasn’t brought up until the day of Kendrick’s bond hearing seems retaliatory given that both Fulton County prosecutors and the Georgia Department of Community Supervision, which handles probations in the state, knew about the charges for months.

“They knew about this well before the bond hearings, probably before the indictment too,” Rafus said. “My take on it is they saw an opportunity where Mr. Kendrick could have potentially got out on bond, so they said, ‘hey, let me file a probation warrant that way we’ll make sure to hold him and prevent him from getting out.’”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reached out to the Georgia Department of Community Supervision for comment on the timing of the warrant. A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office said that handling such warrants was not under prosecutors’ purview.

Based on what happened at Tuesday’s bond hearing, Rafus said it will be hard to get the probation warrant lifted to get Kendrick bond.

“Essentially, Mr. Kendrick is going to be sitting in jail until they can get the probation case worked out and they can have a hearing on it,” Rafus said.

Kendrick’s attorney, Kayla Bumpus, said during the hearing Tuesday that it’s common for clients to pick up extra charges at the jail when bond is denied or after spending a long time in custody.

“It’s very sad to say but, normally when I pick up a client where I can’t get a bond immediately, that’s a double client because they are going to get a jail case,” Bumpus told McBurney. “It’s almost inevitable.”

While awaiting the jury verdict in the YSL trial, Kendrick was stabbed at the Union City annex. Days after the stabbing, he was acquitted on all his charges.

Rafus said if Kendrick would have been found guilty on the YSL charges, the probation issue likely would have not been brought up.

Some of Kendrick’s co-defendants, including Young Thug, have been released from jail over the past two and half years after agreeing to guilty pleas and being sentenced on probation. Others have pleaded guilty to charges but are in prison due to previous sentences and convictions.

His co-defendant Shannon Stillwell, also known as Shannon Jackson, was also acquitted of his most serious charged and was released on Tuesday after entering a plea on his outstanding unrelated charges.

Four additional defendants still face charges in the YSL case and are expected to go to trial in late February 2025.