BY: Walker
Published 5 months ago
Young Thug pleaded guilty to participating in criminal street gang activity today (October 31), ending his role in the longest trial in Georgia history.
Thug, whose legal name is Jeffrey Lamar Williams, has accepted a plea deal, changing his plea to guilty on gang-related charges in Fulton County, Georgia.
“Is it your decision to waive these rights and enter a guilty plea because you are in fact guilty?” Superior Court of Fulton County Judge Paige Reese Whitaker asked.
“Yes,” Williams said before his attorney interjected on one of the counts.
According to an ABC affiliate in Atlanta, WSB-TV, which was in the courtroom on Thursday, the rapper’s plea deal is non-negotiated, which means the final decision on sentencing is up to the judge.
He pleaded nolo contendere to two charges, including violation of the RICO act, which is a plea of no contest or no defense, meaning the defendant neither admits nor denies the charges against them, WSB-TV reported.
The terms of the deal are unclear. ABC News has reached out to Williams’ attorney Brian Steel for additional comment.
Williams was initially charged on May 10, 2022, with one count each of conspiring to violate the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and participating in criminal street gang activity, and was later charged with an additional count of participating in street gang activity, three counts of violating the Georgia controlled substances act, possession of a firearm while committing a felony and possession of a machine gun.
Before the plea deal was struck, Williams had pled not guilty and his attorney had repeatedly told ABC News that his client was innocent of all charges.
Throughout the racketeering trial, which began in November 2023 and has been the longest-running trial in Georgia so far, prosecutors alleged that the Grammy-winning rapper is a co-founder and “proclaimed leader” of an alleged criminal street gang in Fulton County, Georgia, known as “Young Slime Life” or “YSL.”
via: ABC News
