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Schardt is arguing that Stillwell's primary motivation wasn't gang activity ... but money. Dollar bill green. Stillwell was raised in Forest Cove Apartments, which if you've been following my work looking at poverty, you understand is a fresh hell of Atlanta's unique vintage.
4:36 PM · Nov 27, 2023
Rap "is really a bad occupation to try to get into," Schardt says to the jury. "Like other men in the rap game, chasing the dream, he wasn't making any money."Dollar bill green turned into bud green, Schardt said. His marijuana sales are being used as evidence of conspiracy.
4:37 PM · Nov 27, 2023
"We're not hiding from the fact that he's sold drugs," Schardt says. The guns and criminal convictions were about "making money to live, to make money, to pay rent, to eat," and had nothing to do with YSL, he said."He was a drug dealer. He pled guilty. He did his time."
4:40 PM · Nov 27, 2023
Schardt's argument goes to the heart of the racketeering question. The state has to prove that the varied and assorted crimes by individuals were in service to a larger organizational purpose. The defense has to convince jurors that defendants were acting on their own.
4:42 PM · Nov 27, 2023
Schardt is also arguing that the conditions of Fulton County Jail are horrendous, and also that inmates have lost "control of their destiny," which led them to offer testimony that should be questioned because their own lives and freedom were on the line.
4:44 PM · Nov 27, 2023
He's highlighting potential witnesses: Quandarius Zachary, Kenneth Copeland, Sammy Davis and Termon Stillwell, all of whom were under arrest and facing serious charges when giving testimony to the police - that they flipped to save their own necks.
4:45 PM · Nov 27, 2023
The Donovan Thomas shooting was caught on surveillance video, Schardt said - something else that wasn't evident to me.
4:48 PM · Nov 27, 2023
Nicholas Robinson was arrested in October 2015, and implicated Stillwell, along with Kenneth "Lil' Woody" Copeland, Antonio Sledge, Damekion Garlington, Quindarious Zachary, Schardt said.
Only, it was all because Robinson was lying about his identity, Schardt said.
4:53 PM · Nov 27, 2023
Spencer Wright - aka Nicholas Robinson - was the basis for arrest warrants initially in the case. But the DA threw out the charges because Wright wasn't in the video where he said he was.
4:56 PM · Nov 27, 2023
We are now, finally, learning why it's taken eight years for a prosecution on this murder. The initial investigation was tainted by someone fabricating evidence.
4:59 PM · Nov 27, 2023
Kenneth Copeland "hates jail more than anything," Schardt says. But Lil' Woody does a terrible job avoiding it. "Every time he's arrested, law enforcement runs out to talk to him."Schardt notes that Copeland isn't charged in this case.
5:01 PM · Nov 27, 2023
Schardt is making the best argument that probably could be made in the face of some damning electronic evidence, if they have what they say they have on Stillwell's ankle monitor.
5:05 PM · Nov 27, 2023
The state basically broadcast to the street that Stillwell was Donovan Thomas' killer, Schardt said, which led to multiple attempts on his life. YFN tried to kill him while riding in a car and instead killed Tiara Jones as the car flipped in the crash.
5:08 PM · Nov 27, 2023
Stillwell has lived like a marked man ever since, moving frequently, renting cars and concealing his identity, Schardt argued, asking the jury to take this professional paranoia into account.
5:09 PM · Nov 27, 2023
Schardt is describing what jurors will see on video from the gas station, noting that there will be no interaction between him and Shymel Drinks before Drinks is killed elsewhere.Stillwell's car subsequently runs a red light by the car where Drinks' body is found.
5:15 PM · Nov 27, 2023