2 days Ago
Key Charges Dropped and Plea Deals Accepted
Announced back in May 2022, the case was supposed to take down a gang of violent thugs responsible for numerous murders and led by Young Thug, whose government name is Jeffery Williams. Prosecutors said he and others had founded a gang, Young Slime Life, associated with the Bloods, six years earlier. Williams’ label, Young Stoner Life, was also reported to be linked to the organization.
Young Thug copped to gang, drug, and gun charges and was released on probation on Oct. 31. The only murder charge remaining at the trial was dismissed when the defendant, Demise McMullen, entered a plea of guilty to aggravated assault. McMullen was sentenced to 40 years, with 20 to be served concurrently with his other sentence and 20 years suspended.
Nine other people, including Gunna, the rapper, also accepted plea deals. Others had charges against them dropped, one previously convicted of murder in a different case. Twelve of the defendants were split off from the larger trial and charges against six of the dozen were dropped in December.
Topeka, Kan. — Courtroom Controversy and Reaction
The trial was criticized in part for drawing extensively on song lyrics and social media posts as evidence. Doug Weinstein, a defense lawyer for Deamonte Kendrick — the rapper known as Yak Gotti — said the Music Row raid amounted to a discriminatory crackdown on young men making music as a way to escape poverty. Kendrick served more than two years in prison, was stabbed while in jail, and was ultimately exonerated of all charges, which included murder.
Shannon Stillwell and Kendrick were the only two defendants who went to trial in front of a jury. Both were acquitted of racketeering, murder, and other gang-related charges in December, but Stillwell was found guilty of a weapons charge. The trial started in November 2023 and lasted almost two years from jury selection to verdict.
The case was brought by District Attorney Fani Willis under Georgia’s sweeping anti-racketeering law. Her office has attributed more than 400 convictions to anti-gang efforts, but critics say the law allowed irrelevant evidence and prompted a disorganized and drawn-out trial. Andrew Fleischman, an attorney in Atlanta, said that successful guilty pleas could have been attained before now based on other crimes, and the government “was going for a home run and laid an egg.”
The last defendant in the case is still waiting to go to trial on charges of having shot a police officer in Atlanta in a February 2022 incident while on probation.
