A month ago, rap star and accused crime kingpin Young Thug pleaded out in his criminal RICO case and was given probation. I wrote a column headlined, “Young Thug walks as trial fizzles. Is that all there was?”
The answer seems to be a resounding, “Yup!”
On Tuesday, a less famous rapper named Yak Gotti, and one who is so unknown that I’m forced to use his real name, Shannon Stillwell, were given the club wave by a Fulton County jury and will soon be free men.
After a year of being confined to jury duty, 12 Fulton County citizens shook their heads and cleared the remaining two defendants. Yak, born Deamonte Kendrick, was cleared of RICO and murder charges. Stillwell, who faced RICO and two murder charges, was cleared of everything except a possession of a gun by a convicted felon.
Judge Paige Reese Whitaker, the second judge in this nearly two-year trial (including jury selection), sentenced Stillwell to the maximum for his conviction — 10 years — but added that she had discretion in the matter and gave him time served. It was just like in Young Thug’s sentencing, where she was much more lenient than what prosecutors wanted.
The two defendants have been in jail since the spring of 2022.
Both have been stabbed while inside. Stillwell was wounded so severely in the stomach nearly a year ago that it caused the trial to recess. His attorney, Max Schardt, told me it wasn’t the only time he was stabbed in jail.
Yak, too, was stabbed in the head recently. But it wasn’t bad, as stabbings go.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Schardt, who spoke with jurors after the verdict, praised them for “taking their roles very, very seriously. We needed jurors willing to question what the state alleged. We needed jurors who were skeptical.”
If this trial didn’t make you skeptical, then no jurisprudence could.
There was a judge removed in the case, there was a lawyer arrested, there were endless recesses — one that was months-long — and there were many recalcitrant, almost comical, witnesses.
For instance, there was Lil Woody, a witness, rapper and man of the streets (not in that order) who frustrated prosecutors and entertained a vast online viewing audience for days on end with this annoyed recalcitrance.
Here’s how he started out.
Prosecutor: Let me ask you some questions, how old are you?
Woody: Grown.
Prosecutor: What does grown mean?
Woody: I’m an adult.
Prosecutor: When you say you are an adult, what number in years are you?
Woody: I plea the Fifth.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
After that, then-Judge Ural Granville tossed him in the slammer over the weekend to soften up his remembering.
When he returned that Monday, Woody muttered “I don’t recall” within 15 seconds of sitting down and 208 times — by my very unofficial count — before the end of the day.
It was enough to drive jurors, who were endlessly shuffled in and out of the courtroom as lawyers argued, absolutely bonkers.
The case drew national attention in 2022 when Atlanta native-turned-international-star and fashion icon Young Thug, AKA Jeffery Williams, was indicted and charged with running a murderous street gang. It was audacious to think that a man worth millions and admired by as many would bother with robberies and street beefs, which made the allegations so shocking and captivating.
The fact that prosecutors interwove the rapper’s lyrics into the indictment caused many to harrumph that the state was criminalizing art. Fulton DA Fani Willis insisted that if criminals want to ‘fess up to a backbeat, that was their doing.
Originally, 28 defendants were roped into a sprawling RICO case. There are now about a dozen defendants left to try. About a dozen others have pleaded guilty to time served in jail. No doubt there will be more of these.
I contacted the DA’s office and didn’t hear anything. Willis supporters have pushed back on criticisms that this two-plus-year endeavor was a waste of time. They say that Thug pleaded guilty, is gone from the Atlanta scene and that things have quieted — at least somewhat — on the streets.
Facing a long stint in prison, Young Thug did some calculating and pleaded guilty to a few charges and was cut loose from the proceedings. He was sentenced to 15 years probation, banished from his hometown and freed to pick up what should remain a lucrative career.
Credit: Jason Getz
Credit: Jason Getz
A few years ago, Yak Gotti and Thugger cut a defiant anthem track called “Take it to Trial.” And ultimately got their wish.
Thug took his deal but Yak decided to roll the dice and not take a 15-year plea deal offered to him. He risked dying in prison if convicted. Or growing very old there.
“He gambled big,” said his attorney, Doug Weinstein. “Against our counsel, he said: ‘No, I’m going to take it all the way,’”
Weinstein said he’d often bring in composition books to his client, who filled them up during the trial’s down time, which was often.
The lawyer said he was saddened by the story of former co-defendant Trontavious Stephens, or “Tick,” who was arrested at age 11 and tossed into juvie, where he graduated into being a gang member.
“We kept seeing the theme of throwing away our youth,” Weinstein told me.
Often during the proceedings, witnesses spoke about trying to make it in rap because, well, there wasn’t much other way out of their dire surroundings.
No doubt some of all that will be in Yak’s future musical offerings.
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