Mistrial likely in Young Thug's Atlanta Gang trial, prompting delays, plea deal talks

A Georgia judge is considering whether to declare a mistrial in Young Thug's long-running Atlanta gang trial, a move that would require prosecutors to either start from scratch or drop a case that has already dragged on for more than two years.

The mistrial motion was sparked by an incident Wednesday (Oct. 23) in which a state witness accidentally revealed sensitive information to the jury. Defense attorneys said the error was caused by prosecutorial errors, and the judge quickly chided government lawyers for “sloppiness.”

A mistrial would mark an abrupt end to a criminal trial that has spanned 10 months of jury selection and 11 months of testimony to become the longest in state history. Prosecutors have waded through a massive witness list and the case has been beset by unusual delays – including a jailhouse stabbing of a defendant and a bizarre episode in a secret meeting that led to the presiding judge being removed from the case.

Since taking over the case this summer, the judge Paige Reese Whittaker has expressed his disappointment in the way the Fulton County District Attorney's Office handled the case. Last month, he accused prosecutors of “poor lawyering, “confusing” decisions and steps to repeatedly “hide the ball” amid a “haphazard” trial.

At Wednesday's hearing, Whitaker flatly refused to declare a mistrial with prejudice, which would have ended the case for good. But he said he would consider doing it without prejudicemeaning prosecutors could attempt to retry their case from the beginning before a new jury.

The specter of such an outcome has prompted prosecutors to discuss plea deals. According to X posts by Cath Russon, managing editor at Law&Crime, each defense team was to meet separately on Thursday with the Prosecutor Fanny Willis to discuss possible deals.

As a result of the negotiations and pending mistrial motions, all court proceedings before Whitaker on Thursday (Oct. 24) and Friday (Oct. 25) have been postponed and the trial is scheduled to resume Monday morning (Oct. 28), according to Russon.

Thug (Jeffery Williams), a leading rapper and producer who helped shape the sound of hip-hop over the past decade, was indicted in May 2022 along with dozens of others for claims that his “YSL” was not really a record label called “Young Stoner Life” but rather a violent Atlanta gang called “Young Slime Life”. The case, based on Georgia's Racketeer and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), alleges the group committed murders, carjackings, armed robberies, drug trafficking and other crimes over a decade.

While the slow trial drags on, Thug has been in jail for more than two years, repeatedly refusing bond over fears he might intimidate witnesses. If the judge grants a mistrial and prosecutors decide to retry their case, he could face more years in prison until a verdict is reached. Such an outcome could potentially prompt defendants to consider a negotiated settlement as well.

Wednesday's incident that sparked calls for wrongdoing took place as prosecutors questioned a witness named Wunnie Lee (aka Slimelife Shawty), a former defendant in the YSL case, who signed a plea deal in exchange for testifying.

While on the stand, prosecutors asked Lee to identify some defendants by showing him social media posts. While reading one of the posts, Lee read aloud the hashtag #freequa — a reference to a previous prison sentence for Marquavius ​​Huey (aka Qua), one of Thug's current co-defendants.

This was a critical error by the prosecutors. Jurors were not supposed to know which defendants had been incarcerated before, and defense attorneys argued that the government should have deleted the publication and primed Lee not to mention it. After being admitted to the jury, defense attorneys quickly moved to a mistrial.

“We're not going to be able to ring that bell,” defense counsel Nicole Westmoreland he told the court. “It is painfully obvious that the state is not preparing its witnesses.”

The mistake quickly drew another round of criticism from Judge Whitaker, who tried to come up with a solution that would allow the case to go forward: “What I'm trying to do is correct your sloppiness so that everybody hasn't wasted 10 up to 12 months of their lives in this trial.”