Gunna, who is also signed to the 300 Entertainment label imprint, was released from jail last week after pleading guilty to a racketeering charge. The rapper, born Sergio Kitchens, issued a statement via his lawyers explaining that his “Alford plea,” which allows him to accept a plea while maintaining his innocence, was in his best interest after having been detained since his arrest in May.
“When I became affiliated with YSL in 2016, I did not consider it a ‘gang’; more like a group of people from metro Atlanta who had common interests and artistic aspirations,” Kitchens said in his statement. “My focus of YSL was entertainment — rap artists who wrote and performed music that exaggerated and ‘glorified’ urban life in the Black community.” itchens was sentenced to five years in prison with one year commuted to time served and the other four suspended on the condition that he complete 500 hours of community service. He also made clear in a statement that he would not cooperate with prosecutors going forward, including during the trial scheduled to begin Jan. 9, 2023. A source with knowledge of the ongoing case recently told Rolling Stone that the rapper will not be called to testify against any of the defendants during the trial.
YSL member Walter Murphy, who Fulton County prosecutors claim founded YSL as a gang alongside Young Thug and others, took a plea deal in the case, as well. Murphy agreed to “testify truthfully in any further trial as it may become necessary,” with his 10-year sentence to break down as one year of time served and the remaining nine on probation.
Rappers SlimeLife Shawty and Lil Duke also accepted plea deals. Following his release, the former explained via Instagram Stories that his admittance that YSL is a gang does not qualify as snitching, writing: “It ain’t illegal for no group to be a gang look it up that don’t hurt nobody anyone can be a gang, plus the founder already admitted it.” He also entered a guilty plea for one count of conspiracy to violate RICO. Mr. Williams has committed no crime, whatsoever,” Young Thug’s lawyer Brian Steel tells Rolling Stone in a statement on Wednesday following news of the plea deal taken by Young Thug’s brother. “We are focused on our trial and for truthful verdicts of Not Guilty to be rendered.”
According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Fulton County prosecutors plan to call “around 300 witnesses” in the YSL trial that Judge Ural Glanville expects to last between six and nine months.
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