Young Thug has pleaded guilty to in the YSL trial and will be released on probation.
The rapper, whose given name is Jeffery Williams, was released Thursday night after more than 900 days in custody. He will have to serve 15 years on probation as part of the non-negotiated plea agreement, according to multiple news outlets.
The rapper pleaded no contest to counts of racketeering and directing a criminal street gang, and he accepted a non-negotiated guilty plea deal Thursday on a number of offences, including possession of a firearm and involvement in criminal street gang activities. It was the longest case in Georgia’s history. In 2022, Williams was charged alongside more than two dozen others under Georgia’s sprawling Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act — known as RICO.
The prosecution intended to demonstrate that Young Thug was the YSL gang’s declared leader and that he was responsible for several of the group’s crimes, such as the 2015 shooting death of a suspected rival gang member. Prosecutors said that YSL members used a car that Young Thug had rented in the murder.
Williams entered a guilty plea to six charges: three counts of Georgia Controlled Substances Act violations, one offence of handgun possession while committing a felony, one count of machine gun possession, and one count of involvement in criminal street gang activity.
The two no-contest pleas meant he could still be sentenced for the charges as though a guilty plea had been entered though he did not contest the charges.
When the judge asked if he’d like to make a comment, Williams said he takes full responsibility and apologized to his family before asking Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker to let him go home.
“I am a smart guy. I am a good guy. I really got a good heart,” Williams told the judge as he stood before her. “I find myself in a lot of stuff because, because I was just nice or cool, you know, and I understand that you can’t be that way when you reach a certain height because it could end (badly).” He added: “I’ve learned from my mistakes.”
Williams said to the judge on Thursday that he recognised the influence rap music can have on people’s thoughts and that the lyrics “can be twisted.”
“I promise you, I’m 100% changing that,” Williams said.
Whitaker mandated that Williams spend the first ten years of his probation outside of the metropolitan Atlanta area, starting two days after his release from incarceration. According to Whitaker, Williams is permitted to return to the Atlanta region for graduations, funerals, and marriages, but he must depart within 48 hours after the conclusion of those events.
According to the judge, he must host an anti-gang and anti-gun presentation in the neighbourhood four times a year for each year of his probation.
According to Whitaker, Williams is also prohibited from knowingly interacting with members or associates of any violent street gang and is have to complete 100 hours of community service during each of his probationary years.
