Young Thug co-defendant asks judge to limit state witnesses

Jeffery Williams, aka Young Thug, and Deamonte Kendrick, aka Yak Gotti (Law&Crime Network)

A rapper co-defendant of Jeffery Williams, the hip-hop star Young Thug, has asked the judge to significantly limit the number of witnesses that the state can present at trial in the seemingly never-ending Georgia RICO case, writing that allowing another 360 more witnesses into evidence would drag things out into the middle of 2027 and risk confusing jurors.

Deamonte Kendrick, aka Yak Gotti, was indicted alongside several other defendants in the 2015 murder of Donavan Thomas Jr. and other attempted murders in alleged furtherance of “criminal” Young Slime Life (YSL) “street gang” activity.

Defense attorneys E. Jay Abt, Douglas Weinstein, and Katie A. Hingerty on Tuesday afternoon asked Judge Ural Glanville to exercise his “broad discretion” to assert “reasonable control” over trial evidence by streamlining the number of state witnesses.

If the judge does not do so, the attorneys warned, he’ll be hearing this case well into 2027, perhaps more than three years from now.

“The state, after originally proposing a witness list of over 700 witnesses, has a list of over 400 witnesses it intends to present at trial. To date, the State has presented approximately 40 witnesses since presentation of witnesses began at the end of November. At the present, representative rate, it will take until approximately October 2026 to complete the presentation of State’s witnesses,” the motion said. “Thus, the present trial will take well into at least mid-2027 to complete.”

The defense called this “simply untenable” both for the defendants held behind bars during trial and for the jury.

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An additional 360 witnesses “would cause undue delay, would be a waste of time, and would amount to needless presentation of cumulative evidence,” the motion continued, also arguing that such an approach can only lead to “poor decision making by the jury.”

“While the State puts on its case, witness by witness, Kendrick and the other Defendants sit in jail. Their lives on hold. The clock ticking on their lives. Second by second. Minute by minute. Hour by hour. Day by day. Month by month,” the defense said. “Meanwhile, the risk of a confused jury unable to comprehend a years-long trial only grows.”

In closing, the motion asked the judge to make findings after ordering prosecutors to explain why each of the remaining 360 witnesses and their testimonies won’t be “a waste of time,” won’t unnecessarily delay proceedings, and won’t be “cumulative of proposed testimony of other witnesses.”

Douglas Weinstein was one of the lawyers involved in a heated courtroom dispute several days ago over video evidence in the case.

Judge Glanville tried to calm the lawyers down by advising them to “take it down a notch.”

“Just stop! I made my ruling,” the judge told prosecutor Adriane Love.

Read the motion here.