Young Thug Released From Jail: Why Was Young Thug Jailed?

 

Along with 27 other members of YSL, Young Thug—whose actual name is Jeffrey Lamar Williams born on August 16, 1991—was arrested in May 2022 and charged with 63 counts of illegal narcotic trafficking, handgun possession, and violation of the Georgia RICO Act.

His trial started in November 2023 after he was placed under remand in the Fulton County Jail without being granted bail.

After agreeing to a compromise that saw him enter a no-contest plea to many crimes, Williams was freed in October 2024 after receiving a time-served sentence and a 15-year probationary period.

 

In a sudden turn of events, rapper Young Thug was released from custody on Thursday after entering a guilty plea to accusations of illicit drugs and firearms charges as well as involvement in a criminal organization. This was the longest trial in Georgia’s history.

In May 2022, 28 suspected street gang members were indicted on counts of racketeering and other offenses, including the 33-year-old Atlanta musician Jeffery Lamar Williams.

The Grammy-winning musician, who is considered a major hip-hop influence, was one of 28 suspected gang members charged with a number of offenses under Georgia’s racketeering laws in 2022. According to the prosecution, Young Thug was the leader of the gang known as Young Slime Life or YSL, and he utilized his record label as a front for illegal activity.

The racketeering indictment listed murder, assault, carjacking, drug peddling, and theft as the underlying offenses.

The Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug admitted guilt to six other counts, including those involving drugs and firearms, but entered a no-contest plea to accusations of racketeering and being the head of a violent street gang.

According to the New York Times, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker, who took over as the trial’s judge, sentenced him to time served and 15 years of probation.

 

According to an online listing of Fulton County jail records, Young Thug was freed on Thursday under his given name. According to the database listing, the charges were resolved as “time served” or “probation.”

Opening arguments for the case did not take place until November 27, 2023, although jury selection started in January of that year.

Prosecutors said during opening arguments that Young Thug was the boss of a criminal organization that used his musical company, YSL, as a front.

According to Adriane Love, the prosecutor for Fulton County, “the evidence will show that YSL checks all of the boxes for being a criminal street gang.”

 

Love recited lyrics from Young Thug’s song “Take It To Trial,” stating that the lyrics had “an uncanny similarity to very true, and very real, and quite specific events,” as determined by the prosecution.

“We pursued the murder and discovered the lyrics, not the other way around,” she stated.

According to the defense, YSL is an acronym for Young Stoner Life Records, a hip-hop label that Young Thug established in 2016, and that, in their opinion, is more like a loose association of musicians than a gang.

Using the argument that “rap is the only fictional art form treated this way,” defense lawyers had attempted to have lyrics excluded from the evidence.