ATLANTA –
The long-running gang and racketeering trial in Atlanta that led rapper Young Thug to plead guilty in October ended on Tuesday with a jury finding the last two defendants not guilty of murder.
Deamonte Kendrick, who raps as Yak Gotti, was acquitted of all charges and 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.
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 were 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.
Defendant Deamonte Kendrick appears for the Young Thug trial at Fulton County Courthouse with a notorious head injury after a fight in the jail, Dec. 2, 2024, in Atlanta. (Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
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.
Defence 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 Atlanta’s rap scene. Williams grew up in an Atlanta housing project ridden with violence and became a highly successful artist who added his own melodic twist to the modern Southern trap sound he helped popularize.
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Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.