A Georgia judge denied Young Thug’s motion for a mistrial during opening statements in the YSL RICO trial on Monday (November 27). The embattled rapper’s attorney Brian Steel accused prosecutors of intentional misconduct, forcing Judge Ural Glanville to excuse jurors while the court sorted out the matter.
Steel said prosecutors never shared word slides used in their opening statements with the defense. One of the slides claimed Steel represented Young Thug’s co-defendant Rodalius Ryan. Prosecutors admitted it was an “inadvertent omission” to leave Steel’s name on the slide in their presentation.
Judge Glanville rejected Steel’s request for a mistrial but admonished prosecutors for not turning over the slides before the trial started. Monday’s interruption irritated the judge, who also chided Steel and Young Thug (a.k.a. Jeffery Williams).
“I’ve got a jury that’s out right now that’s being interrupted,” Judge Glanville said. “And Mr. Williams, you should’ve made your motion or should’ve told me about that an hour ago or when you found out about it, not hijack me at the bench about that. You did what you had to do, but I’m not happy about that. I’m not happy bout any of this because this is stuff we could take care of before our jury comes in. And that makes you all less in your ability as advocates and less in our ability for this jury to go ahead and get this case seamlessly. This is what I told you all was gonna happen.”
Young Thug is one of six defendants on trial in the YSL RICO case. The slow-moving trial began on Monday after a lengthy jury selection process, which commenced in January.
The YSL RICO trial is expected to take six to nine months. Young Thug has remained in jail since his 2022 arrest. He was denied bond several times in the lead-up to the trial.