GA - Rapper Young + others indicted on RICO & other charges, May 2022. Trial ongoing April 2023, interruptions, lawyer arrested. Fulton County.

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From the am:

Day 3 Court was in session until almost 8:30pm last night in #YoungThug #YSL trial. Jury was sent home at 6pm, but the parties argued over the state's first witness and his slide presentation. The state had not turned over that presentation to all of the defense attorneys

Judge Glanville was once again not happy with the prosecution. Their first witness will be detective Mark Belknap who Glanville has qualified as a gang expert. He apparently has 70 ish slides to use in his testimony. Glanville excluded some of the slides.

Court is set to begin at 9:30 this morning, but we all know how that goes…..


Per @InfamousSylvia , Judge Glanville asked the attorneys to be in place by 9:30 so they can start at 10am. We also know this court starts whenever…..


Williams turned around chatting with co-defendant Shannon Stillwell and Stillwell's attorney Max Schardt.

in green today.

Detective Mark Belknap is the state's first witness. He is a fact witness and also qualified as a gang expert. Today he'll be testifying as a gang expert. Later in the trial, he'll be called as a fact witness to testify about the investigation.

Sidebar. You see #YoungThug with his finger to his ear...he's holding in a headphone. The defendants have headphones on their tables so they can listen to the sidebars.

Belknap: Non-traditional gangs are usually based in neighborhoods. They'll have specific identifiers but likely less than a traditional gang. Because they are local, they don't really have a hierarchy to answer to so they may change up their colors/signs.
Now showing "gang triangle" used by gang experts. We've seen this many times in trials.

Belknap: There different ways to get into a gang. 1. Beat into a gang, taking a physical beating. 2. Blessed into the gang. 3. Sexed into a gang, typical for female members.


 
@ShaddiAbusaid

As expected, the state's first witness is Mark Belknap, an APD gang detective


10:41 AM · Nov 29, 2023


Belknap is offering a crash course on Atlanta gangs, starting with ROC crew, or "Raised on Cleveland."Prosecutors have alleged YSL is a hybrid gang w/ ties to the Bloods. They say its members stemmed from ROC Crew.


12:04 PM · Nov 29, 2023


Defense attorneys have raised numerous objections to the gang investigator's testimony, but they're getting shot down left and right.


12:13 PM · Nov 29, 2023

Back from lunch. The detective is trying to discuss wiretaps of ROC crew members, but YT's attorney is objecting to just about everything he says. There was talk of getting through the state's first six witnesses today. I don't think that's happening


2:12 PM · Nov 29, 2023

Prosecutor Adriane Love is scrolling through a PowerPoint w/ pictures of alleged YSL members' flashing hand signs, their tattoos, and red and green bandanas.Love: In your opinion, Young Slime Life is a criminal street gang?Detective Belknap: Yes ma'am


2:42 PM · Nov 29, 2023


One of those photos shown to jurors:


1701289205415.png
 
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The state’s first witness in the YSL trial today is gang detective Belknap. He spent the early parts of his testimony talking about his qualifications. He says he’s interviewed thousands of gang members throughout his career.

 
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Anyone know what's going on? Trial just cut to break, no notice or anything. It's been that way for about 30 minutes or so?


Edited to add:


@cathyrusson

BREAKING: Judge Glanville appeared very angry and called all attorneys back in chambers. Working to get more information but murmurs about a mistrial. Stand by!


4:11 PM · Nov 29, 2023
 
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ATLANTA (AP) — Young is the ruthless leader of a violent street gang that terrorized Atlanta neighborhoods or he’s an inspiring success who pulled himself out of poverty to rap stardom through hard work and determination. Those are the competing narratives presented to the jury as the rapper’s trial got underway this week.

Young Thug sits in court

Atlanta rapper Young , whose real name is Jefferey Williams, sits in court on the second day of his trial. (Court TV)
The Grammy winner, whose given name is Jeffery Williams, was charged last year in a sprawling indictment that accused him and more than two dozen others of conspiring to violate Georgia’s anti-racketeering law. He also is charged with gang, drug and gun crimes and is standing trial with five of the others indicted with him.

...

One of those murders that is expected to feature heavily during the trial is the January 2015 killing of Donovan Thomas, who prosecutors say was a major figure in a rival gang and whose death is said to have sparked an escalation in violence. Two of the six people currently on trial are charged with murder in his killing, and Young is accused of renting the car used in the drive-by shooting.

...


Posted at 5:41 PM, November 28, 2023
 
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@jewelwickershow

Judge Glanville just confirmed that jurors were accidentally filmed.


4:53 PM · Nov 29, 2023


Because of this, there will be no more filming for the remainder of the day but it seems like the plan for now is to move forward with detective Beltnap’s testimony


4:55 PM · Nov 29, 2023


The judge refrained from blaming anyone for the incident.


4:57 PM · Nov 29, 2023


Also, adding for clarification that the stream is still going on and hasn’t been completely cut at this time. The camera is zoomed in on a water bottle on the witness stand.


5:00 PM · Nov 29, 2023
 
No court on Friday and Judge Glanville announced he's giving the jurors administrative days Dec 16 though the end of the year to get ready for the holidays - so no court for half the month. :rolleyes:
 

What about the other defendants?​

Those being tried alongside Mr. Williams include Marquavius Huey (known as Qua); Deamonte Kendrick (known as the rapper Yak Gotti); Quamarvious Nichols; Rodalius Ryan, who is already serving life in prison for a 2019 murder; and Shannon Stillwell (known as SB or Shannon Jackson). All are charged with violating the RICO law.

Mr. Kendrick and Mr. Stillwell are charged with executing the murder of Mr. Thomas in 2015, while Mr. Stillwell and Mr. Nichols stand accused of another murder, of Shymel Drinks, in 2022, among other counts.

Out of the 28 original defendants, 13 had their cases separated from the group for various procedural and logistical reasons, while nine pleaded guilty, including Mr. Williams’s brother, Quantavious Grier, who raps as Unfoonk, and Gunna, born Sergio Kitchens, a popular one-time collaborator of Mr. Williams’s. (Despite controversy over whether his guilty plea amounted to “snitching,” Gunna has returned to commercial success while on probation, remaining largely mum on the case.)

In all, four of the original 28 defendants were already serving life in prison; others had already been convicted of crimes listed as overt acts in the indictment, such as the Lil Wayne tour bus shooting in 2015 by an accused YSL member named Jimmy Winfrey.

https://www.nytimes.com/article/young--ysl-rico-trial.html
 
The AJC has a paywall. This is the gist of the story.

Here is @ShaddiAbusaid's story on why there was a lengthy break in the middle of the day in the Young . YSL trial halts briefly after jurors appear on camera
https://ajc.com/news/crime/ysl-trial-halts-briefly-after-jurors-appear-on-camera/LZ3TOW6TQ5FUTITFOQS4BQMQW4/
@ajc



Testimony in the high-profile YSL gang case involving YoungThug and five others resumed Tuesday after a broadcast camera operator inadvertently filmed some of the jurors during court proceedings.

Chief Judge Ural Glanville ordered all of the attorneys into chambers about 4 p.m., delaying the testimony of an Atlanta police detective for about an hour.
 
@cathyrusson

For the record (because I've had so many comments), it was not Law&Crime's camera in the #YSL courtroom today. We had no control over anything that was shown. We took our stream down as soon as we were alerted that some jurors were inadvertently shown.


10:07 PM · Nov 29, 2023
 
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