Jurors in the Young Thug gang trial returned to the Fulton County courthouse on Monday and were greeted by a new judge and a familiar prosecution witness who still didn’t have a lot to say.
Kenneth “Woody” Copeland, the state’s key witness in the ongoing case against the Grammy-winning Atlanta rapper and five others, reluctantly agreed to continue his testimony as the longest trial in Georgia’s history resumed after an eight-week hiatus.
For most of the day, Copeland continued to be evasive with his answers, saying “I don’t recall” at least 200 times as Fulton County Deputy District Attorney Simone Hylton grilled him for hours about interviews he gave police nearly a decade ago.
Copeland was forced to choose between retaking the stand and testifying or sitting in jail until the trial is over.
“Alright,” a reluctant Copeland said after being asked repeatedly by Judge Paige Reese Whitaker whether he planned to testify.
Copeland, who wore a striped gray three-piece suit and tie, told Whitaker that he felt “pressured from the get-go” to testify in the case.
“I’m tired of y’all bothering me,” he said.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Moments earlier, he had taken to social media while waiting to be called into the courtroom, going live on Instagram with a video of him drinking water in his suit.
His testimony was deemed so important by Fulton County prosecutors that he was granted immunity in exchange for it.
Information provided by Copeland during multiple interviews with investigators helped authorities indict Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, and 27 others on racketeering and gang charges in the spring of 2022.
On the stand, Copeland avoided most of the prosecution’s questions just like he did back in June when asked about those same police interviews.
”I don’t recall nothing that happened years ago,” he said.
Monday marked the first time the jurors had been in the courtroom since June 17.
Defense attorney Doug Weinstein renewed his motion for mistrial, alleging that Copeland was “coerced” into testifying by the former presiding Judge Ural Glanville. Whitaker quickly denied it the motion.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Glanville was removed from the case last month over his handling of a recusal motion that stemmed from a secret June 10 meeting he held with Copeland and the prosecution team.
Copeland acknowledged that meeting on the stand, telling Hylton again that he had made up most of what he told investigators in previous police interviews.
“Take a little bit of the truth and put it with a lie,” Copeland said. “That’s what I do.”
Whitaker on Monday introduced herself to the jury, telling them not to concern themselves with the fact there is a new judge on the bench.
Since Copeland agreed to testify again, jurors were instructed to disregard several days of his testimony starting from June 12 at 3 p.m., when Glanville was first asked to step aside. Asked whether any of the jurors would have a problem putting portions of Copeland’s testimony out of their minds, none stood up.
Throughout the day, a frustrated Copeland went on tangents and telling prosecutors that he lied constantly to the police in an effort to keep himself out of trouble
”Am I here to tell the truth or remember my lies?” he asked. “I done told the police whatever. I’m gonna tell them whatever I can to finesse my way out of whatever situation I’m in.”
Copeland for the first time implicated a friend, who is now dead, in the death of Donovan Thomas Jr., one of the murders charged in the indictment. He never mentioned him to police during hours of questioning.
“I was going to keep (his) name out of it as much as possible,” Copeland said.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
He would often throw Young Thug’s name around in police interviews to get himself off the hook.
“In my mind, I knew the police would never go mess with him,” he said on the stand. “It was easy for me to try throw the blame off on him to get them off of me.”
Copeland said he told detectives whatever he thought they wanted to hear, saying Monday that one of those investigators had a squirrel-sized brain and believed whatever he told him.
But as the day went on, Copeland appeared to grow bolder, double-checking on the status of his immunity agreement with the judge at least twice before acknowledging his involvement in previous crimes.
