Young Thug Pleads Guilty in YSL RICO Case

Young Thug has pleaded guilty in the long-running criminal case accusing the chart-topping rapper of leading a violent Atlanta street gang, a stunning twist that should end his involvement in the year-old trial.

After days of closed-door negotiations with Fulton County prosecutors, Thug (Jeffery Williams) refused Thursday (Oct. 31) to take a plea deal that would have seen him sentenced to 15 years probation but no prison time. Instead, he opted for a non-negotiated guilty plea, leaving his fate in the hands of Judge Paige Reese Whitaker.

Thug’s guilty plea marks a key turning point in a criminal case that has rocked the music industry. Pitting prosecutors in America’s rap capital against one of hip-hop’s biggest stars, the YSL case has raised big questions — about the fairness of the criminal justice system; about violent personas in modern hip-hop; and about prosecutors using rap lyrics as evidence.

Standing before the judge at a tense hearing Thursday, Thug pleaded guilty to several counts, including possession of drugs and firearms, and pleaded no contest to several others, including the core racketeering accusations that alleged he was the leader of a criminal gang.

Without the negotiated plea deal, prosecutors recommend a far harsher sentence of 45 years, with 25 served in prison and 20 years on probation. Whitaker is expected to hand down her sentence later on Thursday.

The guilty plea came days after the trial was thrown into chaos by botched testimony from a state’s witness, sparking talk of a mistrial. Since then, prosecutors and defendants have struck a slew of deals rather than risk starting over from scratch in the trial, which has already stretched across 10 months of jury selection and 11 months of testimony to become the longest-ever in state history.

Thug, a chart-topping rapper and producer who helped shape the sound of hip-hop in the 2010s, was arrested in May 2022 along with dozens of others. In a sweeping indictment, prosecutors alleged that his “YSL” — nominally a record label standing for “Young Stoner Life” — was also a violent gang called “Young Slime Life” that had wrought “havoc” on the Atlanta area for nearly a decade.

The case, built around Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law, claimed that YSL had committed murders, carjackings, drug dealing and many other crimes. And prosecutors alleged that Thug was “King Slime,” operating as a criminal boss amid his rise to fame. “It does not matter what your notoriety is, what your fame is,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said at the time. “We are going to prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.”

Thug strongly denied the accusations and has long maintained his innocence. On the opening day of the trial, his attorney argued that despite a difficult local upbringing, Thug “doesn’t even know most of the people in this indictment” and had no reason to run a criminal organization.

From the start, the YSL case has been beset by delays. Starting in January 2023, it took an unprecedented 10-month process just to pick a jury. After the trial itself got underway in November 2023, prosecutors meandered through a vast list of witnesses that included a stunning 737 names. There was also a jailhouse stabbing of one defendant, as well as a bizarre episode over a secret meeting with a witness that resulted in the presiding judge being removed from the case.

While the slow-moving trial dragged on, Thug sat in jail for more than two years, repeatedly denied release on bond over fears that he might intimidate witnesses.