FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — A defense attorney in the YSL case is sharing details with Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Mark Winne about a series of meetings he had with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis intending to see if the case can be resolved before it goes to jury.
The trial against hip-hop superstar Young Thug and the alleged criminal street gang YSL is now the longest criminal trial in Georgia’s history.
Defense attorney E. Jay Abt says he and other defense attorneys had a series of meetings on Wednesday night and Thursday morning with DA Willis in an effort to see if there is a way for the case to be resolved before it drags on any longer.
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“Any meeting you would have with opposing counsel would be to try and resolve the case if possible. And that’s what we’re trying to do, if possible,” Abt said.
Abt said that as lead counsel for Deamonte Kendrick, better known as rapper Yak Gotti, he and lawyers for five of the other six defendants, including those for Young Thug and Abt’s co-counsel Katie Hingerty.
“We are making a good faith effort to try to resolve the case. I don’t know if that will be possible or not,” Abt said.
He says the impetus for the meetings was clearly a flurry of mistrial motions made to Judge Paige Reese Whitaker, who took over the case when another judge was removed from it in July.
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“We have asked for a mistrial from the honorable Judge Whitaker based upon what we believe is extremely prejudicial evidence that was heard by the jury,” Abt said.
Abt said his client has been incarcerated in the Fulton County Jail for about two and a half years and if a mistrial is granted, he will ask for him to be let out on bond.
The Fulton County DA’s office declined to comment on ongoing plea negotiations.
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