YSL Trial Has ‘More Scandals Than a Netflix Series’: Legal Expert

As the state is expected to rest its case soon in the YSL trial, a legal expert spoke with Newsweek and evaluated how prosecutors fared amid courtroom chaos.
The final witness on the prosecution’s list, investigator Marissa Viverito, continued her testimony on Tuesday.
Deamonte Kendrick (“Yak Gotti”), and Shannon Stillwell (“SB”), are facing multiple charges related to racketeering conspiracy and participation in criminal street gang activity, along with a murder charge and drug and gun violations. They have both pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Prosecutors claim that Kendrick and Stillwell were part of a gang called YSL, or Young Slime Life.
They were originally on trial with rapper Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, and three others. Williams, Rodalius Ryan, Marquavius Huey and Quamarvious Nichols took plea deals last month.
The trial has been filled with dramatic moments, from a judge being removed from the case to arrests in the courtroom and several mistrial motions.
Neama Rahmani, former federal prosecutor and the president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, spoke to Newsweek about the YSL trial.
“There’s more scandals than a Netflix series,” Rahmani said. “There’s so much in terms of inadmissible evidence that has come in that even if they were able to secure convictions, there’s many, many potential issues on appeal, obviously. There’s issues with the lawyers. There’s issues with the former judge.”
Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville, the first judge assigned to the case, was removed on July 15 after two defendants filed motions for his recusal. Glanville was accused of having a secret meeting with prosecutors and witness Kenneth “Lil Woody” Copeland.
Rahmani said the case was “botched from the very beginning.”
“You can’t charge more than two dozen co-defendants and try them effectively,” Rahmani said. “Procedurally, it is just impossible. And, I mean, this is a serious mistake going all the way to the top, and by that, I mean Fani Willis and the way she’s handled this case.”
In 2022, Fulton County District Attorney Willis indicted 28 individuals, including Williams, Stillwell and Kendrick, under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Many of the indicted individuals accepted plea deals before the trial began.
“She should have taken a more targeted approach and charged the most culpable individuals of murder and RICO, then left the others as unindicted co-conspirators or witnesses,” Rahmani said.
Rahmani said the events happening both inside and outside of the courtroom have impacted jurors.
“Jurors are ordinary people,” Rahmani said. “It’s impossible not to be influenced by all these outside events, including arrests that have happened in the courtroom, exchanges with the judge. Of course, some of those were outside the presence of the jurors, but, I mean, they’re ordinary people. They see that there’s new judges on the case, and there’s been starts and stops. It’s a mess. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Rahmani also spoke about who is to blame for the various missteps throughout the proceedings.
“I’m not saying everything is the prosecution’s fault, but there are a lot of self-inflicted unforced errors in this case that are the prosecution’s fault, and it’s far from a clean case,” Rahmani said.
Despite this, Rahmani said prosecutors may have presented enough evidence, including text messages, social media posts and music from those associated with the case, to convince the jury.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re able to secure convictions for these last two co-defendants,” Rahmani said.
After the prosecution rests, the defense will have the opportunity to present its case.
“The argument really is that this is all about music and this isn’t a criminal enterprise,” Rahmani said. “I think they will need something to support that argument, either witnesses that are going to talk about the music [or] expert testimony to kind of decipher these text messages and social media posts.”
The defense has maintained that YSL is just a record label, not a gang. Williams is the founder of YSL Records.
Do you have a story Newsweek should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact [email protected]