For many following the ongoing Young Thug trial, this week’s testimony from Kenneth Copeland’s might have seemed redundant and pointless. Over and over again, the state’s key witness responded ‘I don’t recall’ to prosecutors’ questions.
On the stand, Copeland refused to repeat the incriminating information he had earlier told police implicating Young Thug and Young Slime Life — or YSL — as a criminal gang.
So, prosecutors went with plan B: Let Copeland tell a different story. That way, legal experts said, they would be to able to introduce those hours of interviews he gave police to contradict it.
“It’s a way for the state to get in all these interviews that otherwise would be inadmissible,” attorney Suri Chadha Jimenez said.
“Normally, you can’t just get up there and start playing what people have said before because that’s hearsay, but if they don’t remember or if they say something in contradiction to, that’s how you get it in,” Chadha Jimenez said.
Chadha Jimenez, who was previously involved in the case, said the state has to do “some acrobatics” to be able to play the interviews in front of the jury. While introducing each interview, Deputy DA Simone Hylton has said the state is introducing that evidence as a prior inconsistent statement of Copeland.
Former prosecutor Stewart Bratcher thinks the state is hoping to impeach Copeland by playing the interviews and showing what “he’s saying on the witness stand now isn’t true and here’s proof of it because closer in time to the event he said something different.”
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Defense attorney Manny Arora said the process is taking so long because every time Copeland denied saying something or didn’t recall, the state had to read it into the record before playing the interview.
“It’s slow and time consuming,” said Arora, who feels the state did not properly prepare Copeland.
Whether it works or not is an open question. All week, Copeland has testified he lied to police. Bratcher said prosecutors will have to argue that what he is saying on the videos is true and corroborate it with other witnesses or evidence.
It will be up to the jury to decide which version they believe.
Bratcher, who is now a defense attorney, said he wouldn’t ask Copeland any questions during cross-examination.
“What you can hope for on cross examination is to get a witness to look like a liar, but he’s gotten on the stand and by his own admission during the state’s case says, ‘I lied’, so there’s not really much benefit to even asking him a lot of questions. He’s already given you everything you want,” Bratcher said.
On Friday, Young Thug’s attorney Brian Steel asked to be allowed to ask Copeland about the June 10 secret meeting between former presiding Judge Ural Glanville, prosecutors and Copeland. Judge Paige Reese Whitaker ruled that there is no need to ask him about the meeting, but he can be asked about the order granted him immunity for his testimony.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Here are some other highlights from the week of trial:
Copeland takes center stage
Copeland — who is also known as Woody — may have been a reluctant witness on the stand but found ways to draw attention to himself outside the courtroom.
Copeland this week released a song, “I Don’t Recall,” spoofing his faulty memory. He posted pictures on social media with Glanville’s court reporter. The two build a rapport while Glanville was still on the case and Copeland testified over several days.
While waiting to testify, Copeland also went on Instagram live from the Fulton County Courthouse.
Quotable Woody
Over several days on the stand, Copeland has delivered a number of memorable lines.
When asked why he fired shots into the air during a particular incident, Copeland denied it.
“I love God too much to be shooting at him,” he said.
Throughout his testimony, Copeland has said that he tried to make police believe everything he said was true. Copeland said one police investigator had a squirrel-sized brain and that he could tell the detective anything because “he’d go for it.”
In regards to lying, Copeland said, “I was raised to lie to the police.”
As Judge Whitaker dismissed Copeland one day and told to return by 9 a.m. the next morning, Copeland asked if he could come in later, “I don’t get no sleep Judge.” His request was denied.
His most iconic line continues to be “I don’t recall,” which he said hundreds of times throughout the week.
Attorney suspended
Copeland’s attorney, Jonathan Melnick, was suspended for six months by the Georgia Supreme Court due to his unrelated representation in a Rockdale County case.
Proceedings were halted Tuesday to allow Judge Whitaker to find Copeland a lawyer through the public defender’s office.
Upcoming schedule
Whitaker told jurors they will be off all next week (Aug. 19-23); Aug. 29 and 30; Labor Day; Veterans Day; Nov. 27-29; Dec. 23-Jan. 1. She hopes to be done with the case by Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Attorneys will work next week on outstanding motions and issues.
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