ATLANTA (AP) 鈥� Deliberations are underway in Atlanta after a year of testimony in the gang and racketeering trial that originally included the rapper Young Thug.
Jurors are considering whether to convict Shannon Stillwell and Deamonte Kendrick, who raps as Yak Gotti, on gang, murder, drug and gun charges. The original indictment charged 28 people with conspiring to violate Georgia鈥檚 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Opening statements in the trial for six of those defendants happened . Four of them, including Young Thug, last month. The rapper was freed on probation. Stillwell and Kendrick rejected plea deals after more than a week of negotiations, and their lawyers chose not to present evidence or witnesses.
Both seemed to be in good spirits Tuesday morning after the previous night. Kendrick was chatting and laughing with Stillwell and his lawyers before the jury arrived for instructions.
The jury started deliberating Tuesday afternoon and was dismissed at 5 p.m. Jurors are expected to resume deliberations Wednesday morning. If they don鈥檛 reach a verdict by 3 p.m. Wednesday, the judge will send them home for the Thanksgiving weekend and they will return Monday morning.
Kendrick and Stillwell were charged in the 2015 killing of Donovan Thomas Jr., also known as 鈥淏ig Nut,鈥� in an Atlanta barbershop.
Prosecutors painted Stillwell and Kendrick as members of a violent street gang called Young Slime Life, or YSL, co-founded in 2012 by Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams. During closings on Monday, they pointed to tattoos, song lyrics and social media posts they said proved members, including Stillwell, admitted to killing people in rival gangs.
Prosecutors say Thomas was in a rival gang. Stillwell was also charged in the 2022 killing of Shymel Drinks, which prosecutors said was in retaliation for the killing of two YSL associates days earlier.
Defense attorneys Doug Weinstein and Max Schardt said the state presented unreliable witnesses, weak evidence and cherry-picked lyrics and social media posts to push a false narrative about Stillwell, Kendrick and the members of YSL.
Schardt, Stillwell's attorney, reminded the jury that alleged YSL affiliates said during the trial that they had lied to police. Law enforcement played a 鈥渟ick game鈥� by promising they would escape long prison sentences if they said what police wanted them to say, Schardt said. He theorized that one of those witnesses could have killed Thomas.
The truth is that their clients were just trying to escape poverty through music, Schardt said.
鈥淎s a whole, we know the struggles that these communities have had,鈥� Schardt said. 鈥淎 sad, tacit acceptance that it鈥檚 either rap, prison or death.鈥�
Young Thug鈥檚 record label is also known as YSL, an acronym of Young Stoner Life. Kendrick was featured on two popular songs from the label鈥檚 compilation album Slime Language 2, 鈥淭ake It to Trial" and 鈥淪latty," which prosecutors presented as evidence in the trial.
Weinstein, Kendrick鈥檚 defense attorney, said during closings it was wrong for prosecutors to target the defendants for their music and lyrics. Prosecutor Simone Hylton disagreed, and said surveillance footage and phone evidence supported her case.
鈥淭hey have the audacity to think they can just brag about killing somebody and nobody鈥檚 gonna hold them accountable,鈥� Hylton said.
The trial had more than its fair share of delays. Jury selection took , and Stillwell last year at the Fulton County jail, which paused trial proceedings.
Judge Paige Reese Whitaker took over after Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville from the case in July because he had a meeting with prosecutors and a state witness without defense attorneys present.
Whitaker often lost patience with prosecutors over moves such as not sharing evidence with defense attorneys, once accusing them of 鈥減oor lawyering.鈥� But the trial sped up under her watch.
In October, four defendants, including , pleaded guilty, with the rapper entering a non-negotiated or 鈥渂lind鈥� plea, meaning he didn't have a deal worked out with prosecutors.
Nine people charged in the indictment, including rapper , accepted plea deals before the trial began. Charges against 12 others are pending. Prosecutors dropped charges against one defendant after he was convicted of murder in an unrelated case.
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Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Kramon on X:
Charlotte Kramon, The Associated Press
