Here we go again. A new motion for mistrial is looming in the ongoing RICO trial against rapper Young Thug and the alleged YSL street gang, following a mishap involving unredacted evidence on Wednesday. The development occurred during the testimony of rapper Slimelife Shawty, whose legal name is Wunnie Lee, who was initially one of the 28 co-defendants in the high-profile case but accepted a plea deal in 2022.
Here’s what happened while testifying, when Lee was asked to identify individuals linked to the case based on social media posts. However, while reading from a paper exhibit, he mistakenly read an unredacted version of a post, rather than the redacted version that was supposed to be shown to the jury. The unredacted version included the hashtag #FreeQua, which revealed that a defendant, Quardavious Nichols, had been incarcerated—information the jury was not supposed to hear.
Get this, following this critical error, the defense quickly called for a mistrial. Bruce Harvey, attorney for Nichols, criticized the prosecution, saying, “It is painfully obvious that the state is not prepping their witnesses.”
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Oh but wait, in response, Judge Paige Whitaker did not immediately grant the motion for a mistrial, but she did leave the door open for a mistrial without prejudice. This would mean the trial could be restarted, but the state would have the option to retry the case. The trial, which began in November 2023, has already made history as the longest-running in Georgia state history.
After the wild incident, Judge Whitaker dismissed the jury for the day and directed sharp criticism toward the prosecution, saying, “What I’m trying to do is fix your sloppiness so everyone would not have wasted 12 months of their lives in this trial.”
The jury was excused, and proceedings were adjourned shortly after the mishap. The trial is expected to resume on Thursday.