Rapper 'Yak Gotti' Found Not Guilty In Long-Running YSL Gang Trial

The gang and racketeering trial in Atlanta that saw Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug plead guilty to gang, drug and gun charges has ended.

ATLANTA (AP) — The long-running gang and racketeering trial in Atlanta that led rapper Young Thug to plead guilty in October ended on Tuesday with a jury finding the last two defendants not guilty of murder and gang-related charges.

Deamonte Kendrick, who raps as Yak Gotti, was acquitted of all charges and Shannon Stillwell was found guilty only of a gun possession charge. The verdicts came nearly two years after jury selection began and a year after opening statements in a trial plagued with problems.

The original, sweeping indictment charged 28 people with conspiring to violate Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and used song lyrics and social media posts as evidence. Young Thug, a Grammy-winning artist whose real name is Jeffery Williams, was set free on probation after he pleaded guilty in October to gang, drug and gun charges when negotiations with prosecutors broke down.

Kendrick and Stillwell were charged in the 2015 killing of Donovan Thomas Jr., also known as “Big Nut,” who prosecutors say was in a rival gang. Stillwell was also charged in the 2022 death of Shymel Drinks, who prosecutors say was killed in retaliation for the killings days earlier of two associates in a gang known as YSL, which they say was co-founded by Young Thug.

Thomas was killed in a drive-by shooting outside an Atlanta barbershop. In the other killing, prosecutors alleged Stillwell pulled up next to Drinks and shot three rounds into his car.