Major Updates In Young Thug RICO Case Ahead Of Mistrial Ruling

Two people remain on trial with rapper Young Thug after three co-defendants accepted plea deals on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, and two 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.
Proceedings were expected to begin at 9 a.m. on Thursday, but the courtroom has not opened to the public yet.
Rodalius Ryan, also known as Lil Rod, was the youngest co-defendant on trial at only 20 years old. He was charged with conspiracy to violate the RICO Act. He agreed to plead guilty to the charge on Wednesday in exchange for a sentence of 10 years commuted to time served.
He is already serving a life sentence for the 2019 murder of a teenager in Atlanta, but he is in the process of appealing the conviction. Leah Abbasi, one of his attorneys, spoke about the difficult upbringing Ryan had.
“He did adopt the people who were around him, the people who could support him, the people in his neighborhood who group themselves calling themselves YSL,” Abbasi said. “Mr. Ryan, at no point, was trying to advance a criminal street gang and their interests. He was trying to protect himself, being a young person largely on his own, and this is where he’s ended up.”
Abbasi also shared remarks about the long-running trial.
“It would be wonderful if some of the money spent on a case like this could possibly be invested in the future of people like Mr. Ryan, who go into custody at such a young age and who really then are not given the resources to make the changes they really would like to make to have a productive future,” Abbasi said.
Marquavius Huey, also known as Qua, also accepted a plea deal on Wednesday.
Huey, 28, was facing a slew of charged that, if convicted, carried a potential sentence of three terms of life in prison and about 100 additional years.
Huey was sentenced to nine years in custody and 11 years on probation for multiple charges. He will serve the sentences concurrently. The state also agreed to not prosecute Huey on several charges, including one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Careton Matthews Sr., one of Huey’s lawyers, said Huey’s father was murdered in 2010 and he was raised by a single mother.
“There have been times when Mr. Huey and his mother and his family have been homeless and have lived out of a car,” Matthews said. “So he’s had a very, very, very hard life as it relates to his upbringing.”
Huey has two children, a five-year-old son and two-year-old daughter. He met his daughter for the first time in the courtroom on Wednesday.
He addressed the court after his plea deal was accepted by the judge.
“I want to thank the court and thank God,” Huey said. “And I want to apologize to my kids, my family, everybody that supported me in this stressful process. I plan to do my time, come back and be a better man.”
Quamarvious Nichols, also known as Qua, was the first to accept a plea deal this week on Tuesday. Nichols, 30, agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to violate the state’s RICO Act. The state agreed to not prosecute Nichols on the remaining charges he was facing, including murder.
He was sentenced to seven years in prison and 13 years on probation.
Bruce Harvey, an attorney for Nichols, said Nichols’ mother died in prison and his father was shot by police.
“He was raised by friends and family in the Atlanta area, so he has come to this point in his life from a very humble beginning,” Harvey said.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker is still considering a mistrial motion filed by Nichols’ legal team.
The defense called for a mistrial after a witness read an unredacted piece of evidence in front of jurors. Slimelife Shawty, whose real name is Wunnie Lee, accidentally read the unredacted paper version of a social media caption rather than the redacted version shown on a monitor. The caption featured the hashtag “Free Qua.”
Defense attorneys said the jury was not supposed to know which defendants had previously been incarcerated.
“Now the jury has repeatedly heard about Mr. Nichols being in jail, being in prison, and we cannot unring that bell, so we will ask for a mistrial,” Nicole Westmoreland, an attorney for Nichols, said.
Whitaker said she would not grant a mistrial with prejudice, but she did not rule out the possibility of a mistrial without prejudice. The decision would end the trial, but the state could still retry it.
Williams is a popular rapper with over 27 million monthly listeners on Spotify. His rap career started in 2010 with a guest appearance on rapper TruRoyal’s song “She Can Go.”
His mixtapes helped him secure a record deal with rapper Gucci Mane’s record label, 1017 Brick Squad Records.
In 2016, Williams announced that he was starting his own record label called YSL records. Prosecutors have alleged that YSL is actually a gang.
The 33-year-old was born in Atlanta. He was the tenth of 11 children.
He is dating R&B artist Mariah the Scientist, whose real name is Mariah Buckles.
Deamonte Kendrick, also known as Yak Gotti, is one of the co-defendants on trial with Williams. Kendrick, 31, was born in Miami and raised in Atlanta.
He was a rapper signed to the YSL label, where he collaborated with Williams on “Take It To Trial.” He released his debut album, Gotti Outta Here, in 2020.
Kendrick got into an altercation with another inmate at the Fulton County jail in 2022. The other inmate allegedly attacked Kendrick with a knife.
Shannon Stillwell, also known as SB, is another co-defendant in the trial.
He is charged with murder and participation in a criminal street gang. He is also facing RICO charges and gun charges.
He was stabbed multiple times by an inmate at the Fulton County jail in 2023.
Do you have a story Newsweek should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact [email protected]