Another person pleaded guilty in Fulton County’s sprawling “Young Slime Life” gang and racketeering case Monday, whittling the number of remaining defendants down to three.
Tenquarius Mender entered into a negotiated plea deal on three charges stemming from his time in the Fulton County jail in early 2022, prosecutors said, including possession of a cellphone, possession of a weapon and participating in criminal street gang activity.
In exchange for his plea, Mender’s charge of conspiring to violate Georgia’s RICO act was dismissed, defense attorney Nicole Fegan said Monday.
Mender will remain in custody after being sentenced to serve eight years in a separate RICO case, according to his attorney. She said he’s already spent the last 4 ½ years behind bars and is “ready to move on with his life.”
For the YSL charges, Fulton County Superior Judge Paige Reese Whitaker upheld the state’s recommendation of a 10-year sentence, with two to serve in custody. Mender received credit for the time he has already spent in jail. And if he successfully completes five years of probation, the remaining three years will be suspended, she told him.
Mender is forbidden from associating with known gang members, must maintain a job and cannot possess weapons or drugs, Whitaker said.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis stunned the hip hop community in the spring of 2022 when she announced Atlanta superstars Young Thug and Gunna were among 28 people indicted by her office on gang and racketeering charges.
Prosecutors accused Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, of being the co-founder and leader of the Atlanta-based gang, which they said was responsible for a rash of robberies, retaliatory shootings and the deaths of at least three people.
The first trial took nearly two years to conclude, making it the longest in state history. That included a grueling 10-month jury selection process and testimony from more than 175 of the prosecution’s witnesses.
Mender sat through months of jury selection in the first trial, but was severed from the case when his attorney took maternity leave.
Four of the defendants, including the Grammy-winning Williams, ended up pleading guilty in the case. And the remaining two defendants who took their cases all the way to a jury verdict were acquitted of the most serious charges they faced.
Some critics have called the high-profile trial a massive waste of time and taxpayer money. They said the state’s inability to tell a cohesive story didn’t help prosecutors win over any of the jurors who essentially had to put their lives and careers on hold to sit through such a lengthy case.
One of the acquitted defendants, Deamonte Kendrick, remains in jail on unrelated charges.
Fulton prosecutors are now gearing up for a second trial involving the three remaining alleged YSL members who have yet to be prosecuted. That trial is tentatively scheduled to begin next month.
With a different lead prosecutor, whittled down evidence and fewer co-defendants this time around, the second YSL trial is expected to take far less time, Fulton prosecutor Adam Abbate previously said.
