The gang and racketeering case in Atlanta that previously involved the rap music star Young Thug ended on Tuesday, when a jury found the last two defendants not guilty of murder and gang-related charges in the culmination of Georgia’s longest criminal trial.
Deamonte Kendrick, who raps as Yak Gotti, was acquitted of all charges. Shannon Stillwell was found guilty only of a gun possession charge.
The verdicts came nearly two years after jury selection began and a year after opening statements in a trial plagued with problems.
Kendrick appeared in court this week despite having been stabbed and injured Sunday in jail, his attorney Doug Weinstein confirmed. Weinstein said in a social media post that he expected Kendrick, who “sounded tired” when they spoke in the wake of the incident, “to make a full recovery.” The stabbing occurred almost a year after Stillwell was also stabbed inside the jail, CBS News affiliate WANF reported.
The original, sweeping indictment charged 28 people with conspiring to violate Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and used song lyrics and social media posts as evidence. Young Thug, a Grammy-winning artist whose real name is Jeffery Williams, was set free on probation after he pleaded guilty in October to gang, drug and gun charges when negotiations with prosecutors broke down.
Kendrick and Stillwell has been charged in the 2015 killing of Donovan Thomas Jr., also known as “Big Nut,” who prosecutors say was in a rival gang. Stillwell was also charged in the 2022 death of Shymel Drinks, who prosecutors say was killed in retaliation for the killings days earlier of two associates in a gang known as YSL, which they say was co-founded by Young Thug.
Thomas was killed in a drive-by shooting outside an Atlanta barbershop. In the other killing, prosecutors alleged Stillwell pulled up next to Drinks and shot three rounds into his car.
Stillwell was sentenced to the 10-year maximum for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon previously convicted of a felony involving a gun, with credit for the two years he already served and the balance to be served on probation.
While a total of four defendants pleaded guilty before the end of the trial, the verdict for the final two was a major setback for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Critics had criticized her use of the state’s anti-racketeering law, which she also used to bring charges against President-elect Donald Trump for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
“We always respect the verdict of a jury,” said Jeff DiSantis, a spokesman for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Defense attorneys criticized the state for relying on song lyrics, saying they were among the faulty evidence prosecutors slapped together along with cherry-picked social media posts and unreliable witness testimony to create a misleading narrative about young men who turned to music to escape economic hardship and difficult pasts.
Prosecutors say Williams and two others in 2012 founded Young Slime Life, which they said was associated with the national Bloods gang. The 33-year-old artist also has a record label called Young Stoner Life. Kendrick is featured on two of the most popular songs from the label’s compilation album Slime Language 2, “Take It to Trial” and “Slatty,” as well as Young Thug’s “Slime Sh-t,” which prosecutors presented as evidence at trial.
Williams entered a risky “blind” plea — meaning he pleaded guilty without an agreement on his sentence — in October. Judge Paige Reese Whitaker let him out of jail on probation with tight restrictions, including a 10-year ban from metro Atlanta except for certain occasions.
The trial has been fraught with problems and delays and shook the rap scene in Atlanta, where Williams grew up in a housing project ridden with violence.
While defendants did commit crimes in the past, defense attorney Max Schardt said it was to make money for themselves in communities stripped of economic opportunity — not to advance a gang. And music let some of them move on.
“As a whole, we know the struggles that these communities have had,” Schardt said. “A sad, tacit acceptance that it’s either rap, prison or death.”
Schardt sought to cast doubts on gang investigators and YSL associates the state brought in as witnesses. Several alleged YSL members testified they had lied to police to stay out of prison, and Schardt said officers had threatened them with long prison sentences if they didn’t say the right thing. He suggested one of those witnesses could have killed Thomas.
Jury selection for the trial took nearly 10 months. Nine people charged in the indictment accepted plea deals before the trial began. Charges against 12 others remain pending. Prosecutors dropped charges against one defendant after he was convicted of murder in an unrelated case.
