Shocking Update In Young Thug RICO Case As Judge Considers Mistrial

The judge in the trial of rapper Young Thug is considering a mistrial motion after a witness read an unredacted exhibit in front of jurors on Wednesday.
Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, and several co-defendants are charged with racketeering conspiracy and participation in criminal street gang activity, along with drug and gun violations.
Williams is accused of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which targets individuals working under a criminal organization.
The trial has been going on for over a year, with jury selection beginning in January of 2023 and taking nearly 10 months to complete. The case has been marked by delays and scandals, including arrests in the courtroom, allegations of secret meetings and judges being removed from the case.
Rapper Slimelife Shawty, whose real name is Wunnie Lee, testified in the case on Wednesday. Lee was initially indicted in the case, but he took a plea deal in 2022.
During his testimony, Lee was asked to identify individuals involved in the case through social media posts. While reading a caption of a post, he read an unredacted paper version instead of the redacted version shown on a monitor.
The unredacted caption included the hashtag “Free Qua.” The defense then requested a mistrial because the jury was not supposed to know which defendants had previously been in jail.
“It is painfully obvious that the state is not prepping their witnesses,” Bruce Harvey, attorney for defendant Quardavious Nichols, said.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker excused the jury and witness, then slammed prosecutors for being unprepared.
“What I’m trying to do is fix your sloppiness so everyone would not have wasted 12 months of their lives in this trial,” Whitaker said.
Whitaker also said prosecutors have not done a sufficient job of handling a large volume of evidence.
“I am sorry y’all have, you know, this gigantic, ginormous universe of evidence that maybe if you narrowed down, would not be making these kind of mistakes,” she said.
The judge said she would not grant a mistrial with prejudice, but did not rule out the possibility of a mistrial without prejudice. If she agrees to a mistrial without prejudice, the trial would end but the state could retry it.
The trial was expected to continue on Thursday, but Whitaker canceled proceedings for the day.
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