The judge presiding over the trial of rapper Young Thug could decide whether to grant a mistrial motion on Tuesday.
Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, and several co-defendants are charged with racketeering conspiracy and participation in criminal street gang activity, along with drug and gun violations.
Williams is accused of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which targets individuals working under a criminal organization.
The trial began in January of 2023 with jury selection, which took nearly 10 months to complete.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys met with Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker behind closed doors on Monday. Media and the public were not allowed in the courtroom and later dismissed for the day.
The proceeding came as Whitaker considers a mistrial motion filed by the defense on Wednesday.
The motion was triggered by rapper Slimelife Shawty, whose real name is Wunnie Lee, reading an unredacted piece of evidence during his testimony.
Lee was asked to read the caption of a social media post while he was on the stand. He accidentally read an unredacted paper version instead of the redacted version shown on a monitor.
The caption contained the hashtag “Free Qua.” The defense then filed the mistrial motion because the jury was not supposed to know which defendants had previously been in jail.
“Now the jury has repeatedly heard about Mr. Nichols being in jail, being in prison, and we cannot unring that bell, so we will ask for a mistrial,” Nicole Westmoreland, an attorney for Nichols, said.
Nichols is on trial with Williams and four other co-defendants.
“It is painfully obvious that the state is not prepping their witnesses,” Bruce Harvey, another attorney for Nichols, said.
Whitaker dismissed the witness and jury, then slammed prosecutors for being unprepared.
“What I’m trying to do is fix your sloppiness so everyone would not have wasted 12 months of their lives in this trial,” Whitaker said.
She declined to grant a mistrial with prejudice, but she did not rule out the possibility of a mistrial without prejudice. The decision would bring an end to the trial, but the state could retry it.
The trial is expected to reopen to the public on Tuesday.
Is the Young Thug trial a federal or state case?
The case against Williams and several co-defendants is a state case in Fulton County, Georgia.
The trial is the longest-running trial in the state’s history.
Nichols (Qua), Deamonte Kendrick (Yak Gotti), Rodalius Ryan (Lil Rod), Marquavius Huey (Qua) and Shannon Stillwell (SB) are on trial with Williams.
A total of 28 individuals were charged in the initial indictment filed in 2022, but many were removed from the case by taking probation and plea deals.
The case has been filled with delays and scandals, including arrests in the courtroom, allegations of secret meetings and judges being removed from the case.
Do you have a story Newsweek should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact [email protected]
The post Young Thug Update: Judge To Deliver Decision On Mistrial Motion appeared first on Newsweek.
