One of the co-defendants charged under the YSL gang and racketeering conspiracy indictment took a negotiated plea deal Tuesday in a move that could alter the course of Young Thug’s problem-plagued trial.
Quamarvious Nichols, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate Georgia’s RICO act. As part of the deal, prosecutors dropped six other counts, including a murder charge and several weapons charges. Fulton County Judge Paige Reese Whitaker immediately sentenced Nichols to his negotiated deal of 20 years, with seven years served in custody and 13 years of probation. He had been facing a possible life sentence.
“Are y’all acknowledging a factual basis to count one, the RICO count?” Judge Whitaker asked as Nichols stood at a podium with one of his defense lawyers, Bruce Harvey, and entered his guilty plea. The lawyer said Nichols was acknowledging two “drug events” in 2017 and 2018, but that was it.
“We categorically deny and contest any use of violence by Mr. Nichols,” Harvey said. “We don’t agree to the underlying factual basis. We believe those two predicate acts that were committed by Mr. Nichols without any question are sufficient to meet the elements of the offense to which he’s pleaded to, which is a RICO conspiracy.” He said there were no “conditions” to the deal, signaling Nichols is not required to testify against any remaining co-defendants.
Nichols had been charged with the 2022 murder of Shymel Drinks, an alleged associate of rival Atlanta rapper YFN Lucci. Shannon Stillwell, another co-defendant still on trial alongside Young Thug and three others, also was charged with Drinks’ murder.
It wasn’t immediately clear Tuesday if Nichols’ plea would affect the mid-trial plea negotiations for the other five co-defendants. Prosecutors started meeting with the defense teams one-on-one last week as Judge Whitaker considered a pending mistrial motion brought by Nichols’ defense team. That latest mistrial motion followed after prosecutors allowed a witness to give testimony Wednesday that was supposed to be excluded on the grounds it might be prejudicial.
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In the Wednesday incident, rapper Wunnie “SlimeLife Shawty” Lee, a former defendant in the case who took a prior plea deal, read aloud to the jury a portion of an Instagram caption that was supposed to be redacted. The redaction was a hashtag that read “Free Qua.” As soon as Lee read the hashtag, there was an audible reaction in the courtroom, captured by the livestream provided daily by Law&Crime.
Nichols’ defense won the right to have “Free Qua” excluded because they argued it would suggest to jurors that their client previously was in custody for a different alleged crime. Prosecutors said it wasn’t clear who the “Qua” in the hashtag referenced.
“We’re not going to be able to un-ring this bell,” Nicole Westmoreland, a lawyer on Nichols’ team, said after the mishap. Judge Whitaker, who scolded prosecutors last month for the alleged mishandling of a different witness, said she considered the Wednesday incident “sloppy” but ultimately a “mistake.” She said if she granted a mistrial, it would be “without prejudice,” meaning prosecutors could return and put each defendant on trial again. She said another option was for prosecutors to come up with a jury instruction that would make clear the hashtag didn’t relate to one of the defendants. Prosecutors said they weren’t sure.
“What I’m trying to do is fix your sloppiness, so that everybody won’t have wasted 10, 12 months of their lives in this trial,” Judge Whitaker shot back. After she sentenced Nichols on Tuesday, Judge Whitaker adjourned for the day without further discussion. The abrupt ending appeared to put the trial back into the state of limbo that started last week.
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Young Thug, born Jeffery Williams, has pleaded not guilty to the eight charges brought against him under the state’s 65-count RICO indictment. Prosecutors allege he founded and ran a violent street gang called Young Slime Life. Williams says YSL is a record label and that he doesn’t even know some of the 28 defendants named in the indictment.
Williams has been in jail since May 2022 with successive judges refusing to grant him bond.
