Metal spent most of his remarks refuting probably the most critical cost, that Younger Thug was concerned within the homicide of Donovan Thomas, Jr. Metal addressed the declare {that a} automotive used within the homicide was rented underneath Younger Thug’s title by explaining that the rapper usually rented automobiles to buddies in want. Metal says that, earlier than the alleged killing, Kenneth Copeland contacted Thug for assist. Answering the decision, he says, was the extent of Thug’s involvement.
December 10, 2023
Shannon Stillwell, a co-defendant of Younger Thug, is stabbed in jail. He survives accidents to his again, abdomen, and shoulder. Fellow inmate Willie Brown admits to the stabbing, saying he took the knife from Stillwell after getting into his cell. The trial is suspended till the brand new yr.
January 3, 2024
Trontavious Stephens, a member of YSL, takes the witness stand after agreeing to a plea cope with eight years of probation. He identifies himself, Younger Thug, and Walter Murphy because the founding members of YSL. He admits the group emerged from the Raised on Cleveland avenue gang however says it was fashioned as “a music label—music occurred first.”
February 20, 2024
The prosecution performs a 911 name by an nameless girl, who claims to have heard of a capturing dedicated by Younger Thug. “They got here to my home and advised me that the man who shot anyone’s title was Younger Thug, whoever that’s alleged to be,” she says within the name.
April 4, 2024
The choose denies a request, by Younger Thug’s attorneys, to have lead prosecutor Adriane Love faraway from the case. Brian Metal had objected to her questioning witnesses with a sequence of “Isn’t it true you advised me” fashion questions. He says the rhetoric makes her an unsworn witness, who needs to be topic to interrogation on the stand.
April 8, 2024
Extra allegations of impropriety by the prosecution. Jurors are proven textual content messages {that a} prosecution investigator, Rasheed Hamilton, despatched to a witness recognized as A. Bennett, who first took the stand in March. One message reads, “Hit me up when you’re bored later. We’re not gonna speak store.” Bennett testified that Hamilton had mentioned he wished so far her and referred to as her “mama” on a number of events. No subsequent motion towards Hamilton was reported.
July 1, 2024
The trial is paused indefinitely as a number of defence attorneys complain that Decide Ural Glanville held improper personal conferences with prosecutors and an uncooperative witness. The witness, Kenneth Copeland, aka rapper Lil Woody, had refused to testify and was held in contempt of court docket. The conferences happened with out defence attorneys’ data, however when Metal realized of them and talked about it in court docket, he too was held in contempt for refusing to reveal his supply. He obtained a 20-day jail sentence that was quickly reversed. Glanville subsequently launched a full transcript of the assembly.
July 15, 2024
Decide Ural Glanville is recused. Decide Rachel Krause, who dominated on the recusal, wrote that, whereas the ex parte assembly was not inappropriate, the recusal was vital to protect “the general public’s confidence within the judicial system.” A separate movement seeks to recuse Krause herself from deciding on the recusal, resulting from a $2,000 marketing campaign donation she obtained from Glanville. Krause denies that movement.
July 17, 2024
Decide Ural Glanville’s substitute, Decide Shukura Ingram, who had been randomly assigned to the case, is herself recused, as a result of her former courthouse deputy had a romantic relationship with Christian Eppinger, one in every of Younger Thug’s co-defendants.
August 12, 2024
The trial resumes with Decide Paige Reese Whitaker in place. Copeland, a key witness, restarts his testimony however solutions most questions “I don’t recall.”
October 23, 2024
Court docket is adjourned after rapper Slimelife Shawty reads out an Instagram submit with the hashtag “#FreeQua”—which the state ought to have redacted from his paper copy—throughout his testimony. For the reason that hashtag may bias the jury by implying that Quamarvious Nichols, one in every of Younger Thug’s co-defendants, has been in jail, Nichols’ attorneys movement for a mistrial. One other defendant who goes by Qua, Marquavius Huey, additionally requests a mistrial. Decide Whitaker criticizes prosectors for a sequence of errors of which that is simply the most recent. “What I’m attempting to do is repair your sloppiness so that everybody received’t have wasted, you recognize, 10, 12 months of their lives on this trial,” Whitaker tells prosecutors. “I’m sorry y’all have, you recognize, this gigantic, ginormous universe of proof that perhaps when you narrowed down, you wouldn’t be making these form of errors.”
October 29, 2024
Following the state’s blunder, Quamarvious Nichols takes a plea deal. All however one of many fees towards him, together with a homicide cost, are dismissed, on the proviso that he settle for the RICO conspiracy cost. That features admission to his involvement in possession and distribution of medication, however Nichols categorically denies collaborating in violence. Nichols will serve seven years of a 20-year sentence, adjusted for time served, with the 13-year stability served on probation. The opposite Qua, Marquavius Huey, additionally enters a plea deal. And yet another defendant, Rodalius Ryan, aka Lil Rod, takes enters a plea deal and receives a 10-year sentence commuted to time served. He’ll now combat a separate homicide cost within the Georgia Supreme Court docket.
