ATLANTA — Jurors, defendants, lawyers and court observers alike all got a taste Thursday morning of the long process to come in the trial against Young Thug and the alleged YSL street gang.
One day after an Atlanta Police detective gave testimony tracing the outlines of the alleged gang origins of "Young Slime Life" in the Cleveland Avenue area, prosecutors began the second day of testimony with witnesses focused on the first item in the case's 95-page indictment.
That item is Act 1 of the indictment's "acts in furtherance of the conspiracy" that make up the case that the six individuals on trial, including Young Thug, violated Georgia's RICO Act. There are 191 such acts under that charge, which the prosecution will go over as it aims to establish that YSL constituted a gang.
The violation of RICO charge is itself Count 1 of 65 in the indictment.
Act 1 concerns a 2013 aggravated assault charge against Trontavious Stephens, who has already taken a plea deal in the case. He'd been accused of pointing a gun at Officer Reginald Pettis, a plainclothes officer who'd responded to a carjacking incident. Both Officer Pettis and the woman who'd been carjacked testified in a process that took roughly three hours before the court broke for lunch.
It's not clear if prosecutors intend to go through the whole indictment one-by-one in this manner - many of the 191 acts allegedly showing a RICO violation involve others, like Stephens, who have either been dropped from the case or taken a plea deal, as do many of the 64 subsequent counts that follow violation of RICO.
But the hourslong process to question two witnesses related to one item out of hundreds contained in the indictment partly demonstrated why the case is expected to take months and last well into 2024.
After the lunch break, another Atlanta Police officer took the stand and began his testimony on the third act under the RICO charge, concerning defendant Shannon Stillwell and a 2013 allegation of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.
Along with Young Thug, whose legal name is Jeffery Williams, five others of the original 28 indicted have gone to trial - Stillwell, Deamonte Kendrick (another rapper, who performs by the name Yak Gotti), Marquavius Huey, Rodalius Ryan and Quamarvious Nichols.
Young Thug faces nine charges in the case, Kendrick faces 12, Huey faces 19, Stillwell faces eight, Ryan faces one and Nichols faces seven.