Rapper Young Thug released under house arrest as part of plea deal in Georgia RICO case

ATLANTA — Atlanta rapper Young Thug, whose legal name is Jeffrey Lamar Williams, accepted a plea deal, changing his plea to a guilty plea to gang-related charges in Fulton County, Georgia.

Williams pleaded guilty in court Thursday afternoon.

He was sentenced to time served and 15 years probation and was released to house arrest Thursday.

“Is it your decision to waive those rights and plead guilty because you are truly guilty?” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Page asked Reese Whitaker.

“Yes,” Williams said before his lawyer intervened on one of the charges.

According to ABC Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV, which was in the courtroom Thursday, a plea deal for the rapper was not discussed, meaning the final decision on sentencing rests with the judge.

He pleaded no contest to two charges, including violating RICO, which is a no contest or no defense plea, meaning the defendant neither admits nor denies the charges against him, WSB-TV reported.

ABC News has reached out to Williams’ attorney, Brian Steele, for additional comment.

Williams will be released from prison; although he could be put back behind bars if he violates the terms of his sentence.

Williams was initially charged on May 10, 2022, with one count of conspiracy to violate the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and participating in criminal street gang activity, and was later charged with an additional accused of participating in street gangs. activity, three counts of violating the Georgia Controlled Substance Act, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a machine gun.

Prior to the plea deal, Williams pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer repeatedly told ABC News that his client was innocent of all charges.

Throughout the racketeering trial, which began in November 2023 and is now Georgia’s longest-running trial, prosecutors have alleged that the Grammy Award-winning rapper is the co-founder and “proclaimed leader” of an alleged criminal street gang in Fulton County. . , Georgia, known as “Young Slime Life” or “YSL”.

“The members and associates of YSL moved as a pack, led by Jeffrey Williams,” Fulton County Deputy District Attorney Adrian Love said during opening statements.

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Love alleged that the alleged YSL members had committed “criminal street gang activity, that is, crimes that were intended to further the goals and directives of YSL itself.”

“For 10 years, a group calling itself Young Slime Life dominated the Cleveland Avenue community in Fulton County,” Love said Monday. “And created a crater in the middle of the Cleveland Avenue neighborhood of Fulton County that sucked in the youth, the innocence, and even the lives of some of its youngest members.”

In May 2022, the Grammy Award-winning rapper was indicted on a sweeping RICO indictment in Fulton County, Georgia. He was among 28 defendants but was put on trial along with five co-defendants after many of the defendants took plea deals while a judge ruled that others would be tried separately.

The rapper’s star power brought national attention to the case and prosecutors’ controversial use of his lyrics, as well as those performed by some of his co-defendants, as alleged evidence in the case further thrust him into the national spotlight.

The use of the lyrics sparked outrage from free speech advocates and prominent musicians and producers in the hip-hop world, who argued that rap music and the process of writing it are a form of artistic expression and not necessarily a reflection of reality.

In the indictment, prosecutors alleged that social media posts, images and various song lyrics posted by several defendants, including Young Thug, constituted “overt acts furthering a conspiracy” to violate the RICO Act.

While the scope of the accusations extends far beyond the use of rap lyrics, the inclusion of the lyrics sparked outrage from artists in the music industry and helped spark a movement that became known as “Defend Black Arts.”

In December 2022, Steele filed a motion asking Judge Ural Glanville, who was removed from the case after meeting with a witness and prosecutors, to block prosecutors from using the lyrics as evidence.

Steele argued that “(lyrics) cannot be used as evidence of a crime if they are simply related to music/freedom of expression/freedom of speech/poetry.”

Glanville denied that motion in a November 2022 ruling, in which he ruled that 17 song lyrics cited in the indictment could be preliminarily admitted to trial.

“I am allowing these pending texts subject to certain conditions, depending on or subject to a foundation that has been properly laid by the state or proponent that seeks to admit this evidence,” Glanville said.

The judge added that if prosecutors intend to include additional lyrics as alleged evidence in the case, they could be submitted to the judge for review.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.