ATLANTA — Chaos unfolded Wednesday during a recess in the trial involving alleged members of the Young Slime Life gang.
Channel 2 Action News cameras were in the courtroom when someone started screaming behind chamber doors and some people in the courtroom became agitated.
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Young Thug was sitting at a table in the center of the courtroom as the drama unfolded.
At least three people in the room were handcuffed and escorted out. It’s unclear if they were other defendants in the case or spectators.
“Everyone chill,” court officers said. “Clear the courtroom.”
Officers then cleared the courtroom.
Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Mark Winne was in the courtroom and talked to defense attorneys, who said defendant Rodalius Ryan had been escorted out of the courtroom when he started screaming from the holding cell area.
Defendants Christian Eppinger and Coradrius Dorsey then stood up and yelled for officers to let Ryan out of the holding cell.
“He didn’t do anything wrong!” one of them yelled.
Eppinger’s attorney Eric Johnson said Eppinger stood up because Ryan is his good friend and he was concerned for Ryan’s safety.
“All of a sudden they take Mr. Ryan, the young child, I mean, he’s a kid, they take him to the back, and we can hear him screaming,” an attorney for Dorsey told Winne. “We can hear him in the courtroom yelling for help. And we’re all confused.”
The attorney told Winne that right about the time that Ryan was escorted out, an officer who had earlier had an alleged altercation with Ryan was scheduled to take the stand.
It’s unclear if that’s why he was escorted out.
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Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffrey Williams, is one of 28 people named in a sweeping 88-page gang indictment accusing YSL of creating “havoc” in Atlanta and repeatedly engaging in violent crime.
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The indictment details the 2015 murder of Donavon Thomas Jr. as well as the attempted murder of rival rapper YFN Lucci by alleged members of the YSL gang that were incarcerated with him.
Jury selection began in January and a jury has still not been seated.
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