ATLANTA (CN) — The new judge presiding over Young Thug’s sprawling racketeering trial refused to allow the Grammy-award winning hip-hop artist, whose real name is Jeffrey Williams, to be released from jail where he has been held without bond for two years.
The decision by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker came during a hearing Tuesday over several motions, including requests for a mistrial and another seeking for the rapper and other defendants to be granted bond.
“I am not going to reconsider any bond issues that have already been considered and ruled upon by another court absent legitimate changed circumstances," Whitaker told Williams' attorney Brian Steel.
Steel told the judge that his client is living in “squalor” and unlivable conditions at the Cobb County jail while the trial drags on and argued that he is not a flight risk and would be monitored on house arrest by law enforcement. Now in its 19th month, the ongoing “Young Slime Life” trial is the longest in Georgia history.
Williams' co-defendants, Deamonte Kendrick and Marquavius Huey, were also denied bond. They had joined the rapper's argument that Chief Judge Ural Glanville’s recusal from the case over his handling of a secret, ex-parte meeting with prosecutors and a state’s witness constituted a legitimate change.
“So that the record is clear, the basis for the recusal of Judge Glanville was not that he was biased, was not that the ex-parte itself was improper,” Whitaker told defense attorneys. “It was that Judge Glanville engaged in an exposition on the facts in making his rulings on the motion to recuse.”
Four of the six defendants, including Williams, filed motions requesting mistrials as long as the case can't be retried.
Whitaker on Tuesday ruled against a mistrial based on Glanville's finding that the ex-parte meeting was not improper. She said she does not have the ability to review the findings in the order from another Fulton Superior Court judge recusing Glanville in the way the motion asks.
Defense attorneys for Williams also argued that the actions of the prosecutors and Glanville violated their clients’ constitutional rights.
Kendrick filed a motion last week accusing the state of goading him into filing for a mistrial to essentially restart the trial since it has not proceeded in the manner they anticipated. During the ex-parte meeting at issue, defense attorneys argued prosecutors and Glanville coerced the state's key witness, Kenneth Copeland, into testifying by threatening him with indefinite jail time if he refused.
Williams requested that lead prosecutors Chief Deputy District Attorney Adriane Love and Deputy District Attorney Simone Hylton be disqualified, but Whitaker said she will not rule on his motion or Kendrick's until she has more time to go through the transcript from the ex-parte meeting and consider whether their conduct was coercive or not.
In defendant Quamarvious Nichols's motion for mistrial and severance, he argued that the mid-trial substitution of a judge violates his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Nichols' lawyer, Bruce Harvey, argued during court that its an "impossible" effort for a new judge to catch up on the 19 months of proceedings.
Whitaker ruled against granting a mistrial based on judge substitution.
“I absolutely intend to familiarize myself with what has gone on in this trial prior to me getting involved in it, I’ve already begun to,” Whitaker told attorneys and defendants.
Attorney Doug Weinstein, who represents Kendrick, argued that jurors heard four days of "tainted testimony" after Glanville continued hearing testimony following the request for his recusal instead of immediately halting the trial.
"We need to redo everything that happened post recusal motion. That motion itself is granted," Whitaker said. If she does not rule in favor of a mistrial, jurors are anticipated to return on Aug. 5, following the trial's one month hiatus.
Fulton County prosecutors sought a gag order to prohibit defense counsel from speaking to the media about the case, but Whitaker told them she was not going to issue any sort of gag order at this time.
The only defendant not to file recent motions is Rodalius Ryan, who is already serving a life sentence for the 2019 murder of Jamari Holmes.
The trial itself began on Nov. 27, 2023, following a string of delays and a lengthy juror selection process. Defense attorneys have repeatedly raised concerns that the trial could go on for years based on the number of witnesses the state intends to call.
Whitaker became the third judge assigned to the case after Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukura Ingram disqualified herself due to an "appearance of impropriety" just two days after she was assigned to take over the trial from Glanville.
The 65-count indictment brought in May 2022 contains 191 “overt acts” that prosecutors contend were carried out in furtherance of a gang known as "Young Slime Life," or "YSL." A total of 28 defendants were named, but many are no longer part of the trial, either because they accepted plea deals or have had their cases severed.
Prosecutors say the gang is responsible for a string of shootings, robberies and selling drugs across Atlanta. They claim Williams was the co-founder and leader of the gang, although he denies the charges and says YSL is merely the acronym of his record label, Young Stoner Life.
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