Young Thug RICO trial resumes with reluctant key witness

ATLANTA (CN) — After an eight-week hiatus, jurors returned to court Monday in the racketeering trial against Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artist Young Thug.

Prosecutors have accused the artist, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, of a slew of gang-related charges. But their star witness Kenneth "Woody" Copeland has turned out to be anything but, repeatedly telling jurors that he lied about Young Thug in order to protect himself.

Copeland reluctantly agreed to return to the stand Monday, after Fulton County Superior Court Judge Reese Whitaker told him he could either testify or sit in jail until trial ends. He was granted immunity in the case after cooperating with authorities, who in 2022 ultimately indicted 28 people, including Young Thug, on racketeering and gang charges.

During testimony, though, Copeland repeatedly said he couldn’t remember events or conversations with police. He said he'd lied to police, name-dropping Young Thug to get himself out of trouble.

Copeland stressed that his recanted testimony wasn't an effort to help Williams' legal case. He said he didn't care about the rapper.

"I have put all the blame on him. I don't know what he did or what he got going on," Copeland said. "I'm telling the God honest truth. Leave me out of this."

"I made all these stories up to put the blame on him to get myself out of a situation," Copeland added. "Police told me they want a big fish, and I'm a little fish."

Copeland's involvement with the prosecution is nearly as complicated as the trial itself.

In 2015, a man named Donovan "Nut" Thomas was killed in a drive-by shooting. Prosecutors say he was a member of a rival gang and have made his killing a core part of their RICO case.

The day after Thomas was killed, prosecutors say Copeland voluntarily came to police with an alibi. According to prosecutors, he told police that some people believed he was responsible for the killing and were targeting his family.

Copeland was convicted on unrelated federal gun charges in 2018 and was arrested again on unrelated gun charges in 2021. That second time, he agreed to help authorities in their sprawling YSL investigation in exchange for leniency.

On the stand, though, Copeland stressed that prosecutors had pressured him to be there. He said he was tired of them putting other people's lives in his hands.

The testimony went so astray that at one point, Hylton asked Judge Whitaker to classify Copeland as a "hostile witness." That came after Copeland described one detective as having a brain the size of a squirrel and said he could tell the detective would accept whatever information he gave him.

During hours of questioning from Hylton, Copeland said he gave police Williams' name because Williams was rich.

“In my mind, I knew the police would never go mess with him,” he said on the stand. “It was easy for me to try throw the blame off on him to get them off of me.”

Following a string of delays and a lengthy juror selection process, the ongoing YSL trial is the longest in Georgia history.

It began in May 2022, when prosecutors unveiled a 56-count RICO indictment against Young Thug and 27 others. Most of the others are no longer a part of the trial, either because they've accepted plea deals or have had their cases severed.

According to prosecutors, Young Thug was part of a gang known as "Young Slime Life" or "YSL," responsible for a string of shootings and robberies across Atlanta. The indictment lists out 191 "overt acts" that prosecutors say defendants carried out in furtherance of the gang.

For his part, Young Thug has denied the charges. He says YSL is simply the acronym for his record label, Young Stoner Life.

Copeland's about-face on Monday is hardly the first road bump to befall prosecutors. A previous judge, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville, was removed from the case after he held a secret ex parte meeting with prosecutors and Copeland without informing defense attorneys.

Five defendants, including Williams, say Glanville and prosecutors have tried to coerce Copeland into being a prosecution witness. They've asked for a mistrial. Whitaker denied that request last week, though she did order the entire prosecution team to undergo additional legal training.

Whitaker introduced herself to jurors on Monday, explaining why Glanville was no longer handling the case. She then asked them to disregard several days of Copeland's testimony from June, instructing jurors to turn over any notes they might have related to that evidence.

Follow @Megwiththenews

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