WATCH LIVE: Young , YSL RICO Trial — GA v. Jeffery Williams, et al —...
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The state said they were going to whittle down the current indictment due to the number of defendants that have taken deals or been severed. We don't know what that looks like yet. They will include some of the defendants, even if they have taken a plea, if it is applicable to charges current defendants are facing.
Jeffery Williams aka
#YoungThug in court on day 1 of trial.
Judge Glanville is on the bench. But wait....not all of the jurors have arrived......we are now back in recess.
All jurors have arrived. Court is back in session.
Judge Glanville giving jurors initial instructions prior to opening statements. All parties will have the opportunity to give an opening statement but remember any of the defense teams could decide to defer their opening until after the state rests. (which will be several months from now).
SIX defendants at this
#RICO trial. Started with 28. Jeffery Williams aka
#YoungThug, Quamarvious Nichols aka Qua, Shannon Stillwell, aka SB. (other 3 defendants in next tweet)
SIX defendants at this
#RICO trial. Started with 28. Marquavius Hey aka Qua, Deamonte Kendrick aka Yak Gotti and Rodalius Ryan aka Lil Rod.
Judge Glanville tells jurors he has a service dog that sits next to him on the bench, "Jack".
Confusion over the witness sequestration rule…..
Rodalius Ryan's attorney has asked to approach the bench prior to opening statements.
Each defense table has headphones so defendants can listen to sidebars.
Two hours after court was set to begin....prosecution opening statement…
Prosecutor Adriane Love start with Rudyard Kipling "The Law of the Jungle" poem: "This is the law of the jungle....and a wold that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die....the strength of the pack is the wolf and the strength of the wolf is the pack.”
Love: The evidence will show that
#YSL operated as a pack.
Love: For 10 years and counting, the group calling itself Young Slime Life dominated the Cleveland avenue community. They sucked in the youth, the innocent and even the lives of some of its youngest members.
Love:
#YSL started out as Roc Crew (Bloods gang).
Love: Members of the Blood gangs change the first letter of words that start with a C to start with a B. (Bloods v. Crips). Therefore Cleveland Avenue in Fulton County became Bleveland Avenue.
Love: When Roc Crew split up
#YSL, Young Slime Life was born with Jeffery Williams (
#YoungThug) as their leader.
Love: This was a group of people who use common identifiers, common names, common colors and common symbols to communicate with one another…
Love tells jurors they will hear from member of the
#YSL gang but warns that how they will actually act on the stand...she doesn't know…
Love: What you will not hear evidence of is that the defendants were not involved in a criminal street gang.
Defense attorney Bruce Harvey objects to Love "burden shifting" in her opening.
Love: The evidence will show that
#YSL does not adhere to all the customs of a criminal street gang....that makes it no less than a criminal street gang.
Love: The defendants have shown through their actions that they have displayed an unspoken agreement to participate in that gang through a pattern of illegal activity. The head of this gang is seated in this courtroom.
Love: The evidence will show that the members and associated of
#YSL knew who their leader was and knew the repercussions of not obeying their leader.
Love: When members of the
#YSL gang would get in trouble they would reach out to
#YoungThug's sister. They knew the info would get back to "King Slime" as
#YoungThug was called.
Love: Jan 10, 2015, rival gang member Donovan Thomas was gunned down. The evidence will show that part of the reasons criminal street gangs operate is to demonstrate dominance, fear…
Love: After the murder of Thomas, no less than 50 shootings happened over the next month. Hundreds of bullets fired into cars, homes and people.
Love: What is RICO? The state is allegedly that these defendants had an agreement to obtain property (cars, cellphones, stolen guns) through a pattern of illegal activity.
We have our first sending out the jury sidebar. Be prepared for many of these.
#YoungThug attorney Brian Steel objected to something Love said in her opening. Judge Glanville sent the jury out.
JURY OUT OF THE ROOM: Steel reminds the judge that he ordered all the parties to share their displays they would be using during openings. Love just showed something that Steel said judge had excluded.
MOTION FOR MISTRIAL: 's attorney is moving for a mistrial because prosecutor Love showed on the screen to the jury that Brian Steel representing Rodalius Ryan in another case. Steel says that is untrue and now the jury has seen it.
This is what was shown to the jury. Judge DENIED motion for mistrial but will give an instruction to the jury.
Steel says he is not representing Ryan on appeal in this case as it was shown to the jury....he says this is not true. Also, this was never disclosed to the defense. Judge Glanville ordered the state and defense to turn over all displays they intended to use during openings.
Prosecutor Love admits she has not turned over all the slides she intends to use during openings.
Because Love hadn't turned over all the slides, judge Glanville will now recess to give her the opportunity to turn everything over to the defense teams.
Here is the setup in the
#YSL courtroom. All the defendants set up on the right side (if facing the bench). Media/public left side. Jurors area to the far left of the bench (if facing bench).
Defense says there are at least a dozen slides that state plans to use in opening that were never turned over to defense and also slides with factual errors. Ryan's attorney says there is a slide that says her client was involved in a murder that he was not involved in. Prosecutor Love admits that's inaccurate and she will fix. (This is crazy town)
Judge Glanville tells prosecutor Love that she is the reason they are having this delay because she didn't turn over her powerpoint presentation to the defense. Judge will now recess for lunch to give state opportunity to correct the errors she has in her powerpoint. Glanville also says if not corrected, he'll exclude her entire presentation.
LUNCH RECESS until 1:45pm ET. We didn't even get through a fraction of prosecution opening statement. We could still have 6 more openings after she's done....
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