Episode 3: Take It To Trial Pt. 1

A haunting scream echoes through the courtroom in the YSL trial, causing chaos and the arrest of several defendants. It’s just another day in the craziest trial in Atlanta’s history—and we meet the district attorney prosecuting it, Fani Willis, to discuss why RICO is such a powerful, albeit controversial tool to target both criminal street gangs and Donald Trump. We also press a gang unit investigator caught in a leaked interrogation tape about how law enforcement turn suspects like Lil Woody into witnesses.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
King Slime is a production of iHeart Podcasts and Heirloom Media.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good Morning, Council's insured parties. We are on the record
of the matter of Saint Georgia versus Khalif Adams at
all in twenty two sc One eight three five seventeen.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Let me go ahead and take roll.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
At this point in time, it's April nineteen, twenty twenty three,
four and a half months into the isl pre trial process.
Good morning, Jurors are being vetted and lawyers on both
sides are making cases for what should be admissible as
evidence steal. Good morning. These are rather bureaucratic steps in
the process. But I've been given a tip that something

(00:39):
big might happen today. So I'm at the Fulton County
Courthouse on Prior Street in downtown Atlanta. All right, we're
going to take a recess for lunch.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
I'll see you all back at one thirty, and we
can kind of update accordingly at that point in time. Okay.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
After an early afternoon recess, thirteen defendants more than it doesnt,
defense attorneys, several sheriff's deputies, and full of reporters like
me start to trickle back into the chambers. When Suddenly,
the dull murmur of court preparing to resume is pierced
by a blood curdling scream. The scream comes from the

(01:20):
courtroom holding cell, connected to the chamber by a closed door.
The scene quickly becomes chaotic. A bailiff orders people in
the courtroom to take their seats as young thug wearing
a COVID nineteen face mask, a gray V neck sweater
with a red tie, and a set of headphones, lifts

(01:40):
his gaze up from the desk in front of him
and starts looking around. He's got a puzzled expression on
his face. One of the YSL defendants, Christian Appinger, rises
in the back of the courtroom and starts protesting. Max Shart,
an attorney representing defendant Chen and Stillwell, urges Eppinger to
calm down. Judge r Old Glanville's chair sits empty on

(02:11):
the bench, but everyone else can hear more screams from
the holding cell and more outbursts from the defendants. The
bailiffs surround Debinger and another defendant, Cordarius Dorsey, who also
stands up in response to the screams. They are cuffed

(02:34):
and arrested. At their own trial then led through the
same door leading to the holding cell where r Dalius
Ryan low Rod is screaming. Proceedings are halted and the
courtroom is cleared. I find were Dailius Ryan's defense attorney

(03:03):
Angela to Williams in the hallway amid the confusion. What
the fucker's up? I mean, I don't even we don't know.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
My claim was just screaming.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
In the vacuum of an explanation for little Rod's removal
from court, and it screams from the holding cell. Tempers
were running hot and theories were being formed in real time.

Speaker 4 (03:22):
They're doing that on purpose to show, Oh, these people
aren't bad, look what they're doing.

Speaker 5 (03:26):
They did it as a show.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
But who the hell are they showing it for, because.

Speaker 4 (03:31):
To show that they're being disruptive, Our clients are not disruptive.
You were in there, nobody was being disruptive.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Shennon still Wills defense attorney Max Sharp steps forward.

Speaker 6 (03:41):
I would just like to know if the press was
called hours before the hearing to pre plan one of
our clients, that's something pulled out of the court house.

Speaker 7 (03:54):
I'm not blaming the press.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
I understand that a member of the district attorney's staff
said I shouldn't be in the court today without being
specific about it.

Speaker 7 (04:04):
So it sounds like the District Attorney's office was planning
something to have Miss d William's client forcefully taken out
of the courtroom in front of the press and making
separating him from his attorney, who obviously cares very much
about him and is in tears right now. And that's
the way we're conducting this truck that infuriates me, not

(04:28):
because I'm an attorney, because I am an intern.

Speaker 8 (04:32):
And that's not the way we're supposed to.

Speaker 4 (04:33):
Be doing this, and they're.

Speaker 7 (04:35):
Not supposed to kick you all out of the court.

Speaker 6 (04:37):
All we want is spare truck.

Speaker 5 (04:39):
Can't be fair.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
I'm George Cheaty and I'm Christina Lee. This is King Slime,
the prosecution of young thug and myself.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
The first time I walked into Fulton County District Attorney
Fannie Willis's offices was in May of twenty twenty one.
It was months after she had been elected, and the
first thing I noticed was that the hallways were stacked
eye high with cardboard filing boxes. They were seriously everywhere.
Each box had criminal cases in it, and those boxes

(05:28):
were a little representation of how those cases were piling up,
as if the space itself was slowly being swallowed by paperwork.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
But when we show up recently to interview Willis, her
two and a half year effort to revamp the office
is obvious. No boxes, no clutter. The floor is clear,
aside from a giant white and blue circular rug with
the scales of justice haloed by her name Fanie T.
Willis and the slogan Integrity matters. Willis has hired her

(05:58):
own staff up and down the sh chain, promising a
new order. And our PR team is composed of wired
political operatives who walk us through these now empty hallways
to a nondescript meeting room.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
When d Willis enters the room, she's tailed by a
film crew capturing her every move.

Speaker 9 (06:18):
You know they're filming a documentary.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
The district attorney in a major city is by nature
a powerful position, but Willis's profile has risen much faster
and higher because of a particular case that happens to
fall in her jurisdiction. Let me ask you a question
you probably can't answer. Are you going to indicte Donald Trump?

Speaker 10 (06:43):
Do you know I'm not going to answer that, but
you had to ask.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
I got to ask it. Literally, as we were recording
this episode, Fannie Willis's office called me to tell me
I had been subpoened to testify in front of the
grand jury because I managed to discover the accused fake
electors trying to do their thing at the state capitol
in December of twenty twenty. I guess she answered that
question early for us anyway. Former President Donald Trump's quote

(07:11):
perfect call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Rafitsberger actually
took place in the day before Willis started her first term.
Between the Trump fake elector's indictment, they sell and WIFN
trials and all the everyday cases swirling around, it's a lot.
How are you going to handle all of this stuff?
Like It's just it seems like a lot of moving

(07:32):
parts right now.

Speaker 10 (07:34):
I mean, there are a lot of moving parts.

Speaker 9 (07:35):
I can't deny that I have a very complex job
that involves a lot of very complex issues. But I'm
capable of handling those issues. We do them every day,
one day at a time. I'm probably giving a little
bit of too much of my life up to this,
but this is my dream job.

Speaker 10 (07:53):
People look at me like I'm crazy. This was my dream.

Speaker 9 (07:56):
God plans different dreams and different people, and this was
my dream. From this perch, I can impact so many things.
It's important the work that we're doing, so I guess
I'm saying I like living a life that has meaning.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
Willis says she approaches the job simply by working her
eyes off.

Speaker 9 (08:16):
I was emailing people at one o'clock this morning. I
slept from about one to five. You know, I got
in a car to get to my first appointment. To me,
it's worth it. I wouldn't have it any other way.
I'm gonna do it as long as I can do it.
My plan was to spend this first term kind of
correcting all the things that I thought went wrong. I
hope to spend my next two terms really putting my

(08:38):
mark on this and making sure that people know that
the DA's office is here to serve you.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Willis credits her father for instilling this tireless work ethic
in her.

Speaker 9 (08:47):
I was raised by a criminal defense attorney. I think
I've become my father in this sense.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
She is the daughter of a prominent civil rights attorney
who was also a black panther.

Speaker 9 (08:55):
I tell my father that he had child abuse because
he used to have me put together his files. This
files contained that people, and I was like, you know,
that's probably child abuse.

Speaker 10 (09:04):
Probably was not appropriate for an eight year old.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
Willis was born in Inglewood, California, attended Howard University, and
stayed in Atlanta after getting her law degree at Emory,
working for the District Attorney's office as a prosecutor for
nearly two decades.

Speaker 9 (09:18):
I left the District Attorney's office to run for judge.
Got forty nine percent of the vote right, then got
to a runoff and got forty four percent of the
vote and lost. Really spent some time because I went
into my own retirement with money. I didn't have to
try to make that a success. And I had conversations

(09:39):
with God to say, like, you know what you're doing right,
Like I did everything I knew how to do, and
why didn't this work out for me? But I had
sense enough to say, like what is your plan? And
I'm not going to tell you like I heard some
voice because I didn't hear any voice. That's what was
fustrating about it. But the very next day people started
calling me, will you represent me? I'm like, wait, minute.

(10:00):
I'm exhausted. I haven't slept, I haven't rebounded yet.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Willis went into private practice defending clients in criminal cases.

Speaker 9 (10:09):
That was an excellent experience because that had me in
Georgia prisons, had me talking to defendants, It had me
making sure that I advocated for people.

Speaker 10 (10:18):
I think that was part of God's plan.

Speaker 9 (10:19):
He needed me to have that experience before allowing me
to be in this position.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
She then served as the chief judge of Georgia's Judicial
Qualifications Commission, a group that oversees and prosecutes judges in
the event of malfeasance.

Speaker 9 (10:33):
I'm one of the very few African Americans that's ever
had the chance to do that and hold judges accountable
one I'm very, very proud and very humble that I
was able to have that experience.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
In twenty nineteen, she became chief judge for South Fulton,
a metro Atlantic city of one hundred thousand residents.

Speaker 9 (10:49):
And then again I got to watch the criminal justice
system from a different perch.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
It was in twenty twenty that she says she started
getting calls to run for District Attorney.

Speaker 9 (10:57):
And I'm thinking, I don't want to run for DA.
I'm making a little bit of money right now. I
got this cushy job as a judge. I go sit
up here and pay me six figures to do it.
Plus I can take clients like, why would I want
to do anything other than this right here?

Speaker 10 (11:10):
This is a good life bus.

Speaker 9 (11:12):
Something nagged on me, mainly people right in the community
saying no, we really need you, We need you to
come about at this time and to do this. And
all of those experiences were needed so that I would
be equipped for this job. So the eighteen years as
a prosecutor that wasn't enough. It was the needing to
go into Georgia prisons to relate to criminal defendants, to

(11:35):
help them. And you know, when I'm an advocate for them,
I'm as much as an advocate for my client as
I am for the state.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
Back when Willis was campaigning to replace Paul Howard in
twenty twenty, violence was becoming an increasingly worrisome problem in Atlanta.

Speaker 11 (11:52):
Twenty twenty will go down as a year violent crime
ravaged Atlanta and other major cities across our countries.

Speaker 6 (11:57):
Homicides in Atlanta increase sixty two percent year to year.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
We are shooting each other up on our streets.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
People all across the city are frustrated with all the crime,
frightened of it, and demanding action to stop it. The
media does a poor job of explaining crime to people.
Most folks think crime has been rising for most of
their lives because murder dominates newscasts and social media feeds.

Speaker 12 (12:21):
Atlanta homicides had aggravated, assults of gunfire erupted.

Speaker 13 (12:24):
Thirty one people injured, and at least five people kill
or all violent crime.

Speaker 11 (12:28):
And biking crime in this wave of violent never seen
crime in every area of Atlanta like it is right
now the line.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
Up through twenty nineteen. Violent crime had been mostly falling
across America for about twenty five years, including Atlanta, and
then it started rising. It was happening in most large cities,
and Atlanta got the worst of it. Nationally, the homicide
rate increased by about thirty percent in twenty twenty. It

(12:59):
was the biggest one year increase in at least one
hundred years. Atlanta's homicide rate rose about twice as much
fifty nine percent, from ninety nine people killed in twenty
nineteen to one hundred and fifty seven in twenty twenty.
Police nationwide tend to attribute the twenty twenty murder spike

(13:19):
to something you may have heard of.

Speaker 14 (13:21):
We know in twenty twenty a lot of things happened
from trails of the Ferguson effect, as they call it.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
That's Antonio Long, a deputy Chief Investigator with the Fulton
County District Attorney's Office. The Ferguson effect is a reference
to the shooting of Michael Brown and Ferguson, Missouri, near
Saint Louis in twenty fourteen, the rise of the Black
Lives Matter movement and the police response to that.

Speaker 14 (13:42):
Some of the things that happen with police brutality in
twenty twenty during the pandemic that led to protests, some
of the challenges with law enforcement and communities. Some of
the stances on both sides of the isle in terms
of police presence and police activity. Some of that have
caused police officers to respond differently for fear of retaliation

(14:04):
or what may happen to them if they respond, and
depend on how they responded. So we know a lot
of those things played part into some of the things
that took place to increase crime.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
I started looking closely at why crime arose in Atlanta
in twenty twenty one. In Atlanta, policing problems definitely.

Speaker 13 (14:22):
Contributed dozens of Atlanta police officers calling out for a
third straight day.

Speaker 2 (14:27):
Now cops here basically went on strike for a while
after the former DA charged two officers with murder for
shooting at UI suspect Rayshard Brooks dead after fighting with him.

Speaker 9 (14:39):
The sick out or the so called blue flu beginning
right after the Fulton County DA said he was charging
two officers in Rayshard Brooks's death.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
But violent crime started to curve upwards a few weeks
before the protests began in Atlanta, just as the pandemic
lockdowns and associated job losses started to threaten people's livelihod
Atlanta hasn't entrenched any quality problem that drives crime even
in the best years. Mixed that with the state's scant

(15:08):
mental health resources and very loose gun laws and the
cocktail turns Molotov by the Rayshard Brooks protests and the
blue flew sick out. But where others saw chaos, Willis
saw a pattern. So when she became Fulton County's first
female district attorney in twenty twenty, gang violence became her

(15:30):
top priority.

Speaker 9 (15:31):
I remember when we first took office, We're screaming from
the top of the heels that there's a gang problem.
And people were really actually kind of treating us like
we were crazy. Right, there's a gang problem in la
there's a gang problem in Chicago. But they did not
want to admit that there was a gang problem right
here in Atlanta.

Speaker 10 (15:48):
But we kept talking about.

Speaker 9 (15:50):
Facts that I knew to be true because I knew
crime waves.

Speaker 10 (15:53):
I knew that one.

Speaker 9 (15:54):
Important person got killed, and then we get a gang
war for several years.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
And the ys All trial. That one important person is
Donovan Thomas.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
We're finding that Donovan Thomas is super important. Peanut, Yeah,
you had an interaction with his family early in your career.
Earlier in your career, can you tell us about.

Speaker 9 (16:16):
That, because we have an ongoing case where I'm sure
you're aware he is the center of that case. I
won't speak to that. I will speak to this. The
internet is always very interesting. I have seen speculation where
I have something more than a professional relationship with that
family that is not true. What you will find, though,

(16:38):
is the ethics of my administration. What I insist on
from everyone is that everyone is entitled to some dignity
and value. And I bring that up because sometimes people
that sometimes have made bad choices, or have done the
wrong thing, or from certain zip codes right, or let's
just hit it on its head. African Americans, impoverished, uneducated

(17:00):
aren't treated with the same level of respect and dignity.
And so the interaction that I had with them, or
I'll have with any family, no matter where they come from,
is always going to be the same, and that is
that we're gonna make sure that we treat people with respect.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
Willis has to be careful. She's become a high profile figure,
not just in Atlanta, but nationwide. She's been profiled in
scores of national media outlets and can deliver a hell
of a sound bite. But the Yoel indictment is an
active case, and we were granted this interview with an
understanding that da Willis will not be able to directly
discuss the Yel trial, but of course we try anyway.

Speaker 9 (17:39):
As you know, I have an active case going on,
so I'm gonna not comment. I don't even know what
case you're looking at.

Speaker 10 (17:45):
Now.

Speaker 9 (17:45):
You know, I'm not gonna comment on this, but I'm
gonna let you ask the whole question.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
Even if she can't get specific, there's still plenty to
talk about. What we're most interested in is our offices
brought approach to prosecuting gang violence and all of the
comp iplicated social, cultural, and economic issues swirling around those prosecutions.
Coming back to this earlier press conferences where you were
talking about gangs being responsible for seventy five to eighty

(18:13):
percent of violent crime in the city of Atlanta.

Speaker 9 (18:17):
I've made no secret about it, nor any apology that
as the District Attorney of Fulton County, my number one
focus is targeting gangs and there's a reason for that.
They are committing conservatively seventy five to eighty percent of
all of the violent crime that we are seeing within
our community, and so they have to be rooted out

(18:40):
of our community.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
How do you know it's seventy five to eighty percent.

Speaker 9 (18:43):
I think the stats that were depending on are actually low.
What we are talking about when we tell those numbers
are self identifying people that have already gone into the
penal system, and they're identifying actually as gangs, or we're
finding their mail or their phone things, so we're not
hitting a lot of people. The one thing that is
unique though about this group is it really doesn't count

(19:05):
if you're in a gang if you don't claim it right.
And so you will find and I know your background
that even in police interviews, you've seen it where they'll
tell you what's set there from they are proud to
declare it, or they have a tattoo on that says it,
or they're claiming it through emojis or through direct language
on social media.

Speaker 10 (19:25):
And so we're just talking about those that we know.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
As we mentioned several times on this show, the Yicel
trial utilizes the State's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act,
known as RICO, which means the defendants are tried together
as a group and charges can be applied to everyone
proven to be associated with that group. Willis's most famous
one was in the RICO trial against several Atlanta school

(19:57):
District teachers who are convicted of altering students answers on
standardized tests.

Speaker 9 (20:01):
So let me tell you why I like RICO. As
a prosecutor. What I have found is that jurors are
extremely intelligent. They may be lay people, they may not
be trained in the law, but they're intelligent. As your
Grandmama said, they got that, just good old fashioned common sense.

Speaker 5 (20:15):
Right.

Speaker 9 (20:16):
What is so special about RICO to me and why
it is a tool that I have made sure that
my staff is trained on that they know that it's there,
is because it allows you to tell.

Speaker 10 (20:27):
The entire story.

Speaker 9 (20:29):
So often when prosecutors are prosecuting a case, they are
not able to tell the entire story and it typically
goes past this one incident. Let me give you an
example that's kind of off the gang world but applies
actually sadly.

Speaker 10 (20:46):
In human trafficking.

Speaker 9 (20:48):
Oftentimes, the police miss will pick up a young lady
right for prostitution, a misdemeanor, and if the police do
not sit down and do a good investigation or a
good interview of that young lady, what you often find
when you just peel back just a little bit is
that she's working for somebody. That's thing number one, right,
And that not that she's working for somebody, but it's

(21:10):
her and three friends or at least now what have
become acquaintances working for them. And then what we found
is if you peel back a little bit, more gangs
have really gotten into this, which is in a diabolical way.
Smart right, you sell dope, you sell it one time
that your profit is gone, but a woman you can
use her over and over and over again to keep

(21:31):
that profit going. And so we see them branching off
into that very quickly. That becomes a rico, right because
then what that money that they're making can tie in
to other things. Same person who is pimping those girls
might have some young boys in the street robbing cars,
and it's an organization that's doing it, And so why
shouldn't we not use the tool to tell the entire

(21:54):
story of all the harm that this organization is doing
to our community.

Speaker 1 (21:58):
The Georgia Street Gained Terrorists and Prevention Act was first
passed in nineteen ninety two, but the original law was
so vague that it was never used. As gang violence
began to escalate in the state, however, lawmakers reformed the
law in nineteen ninety eight. A new law was passed
that defined terms like criminal streaking and pattern of criminal activity.

(22:20):
Penalties were increased for juveniles forfeiture at property rights were
given to law enforcement, and nuisance claims allowed officials to
shut down businesses. Treble damages, which means settlements can be tripled,
were also enacted when connected with gang crimes, and in
twenty twenty three, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed laws that

(22:41):
created mandatory minimum sentences of five years to a maximum
of twenty five years for anyone convicted of a gang crime,
and additional ten years are added for anyone convicted of
recruiting minors into a gang. One of the men who
helped write these laws works in Willis's office.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
Was a very flexible statute and it can be used
against any group that functions as a criminal enterprise at
Georgia Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act is a narrower
version of RICO four Gangs.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
Michael Carlson is the Executive District Attorney of the Major
Crimes Unit for the Fulton County District Attorney's Office.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
There is a a federal racketeering laws on the books
for decades. Of course, they sat essentially dormant for years
before they started being used federally, and once they started
being used for the purpose they were designed for, and
that was to take down Cozenoustra, essentially within less than
two decades, Cozenoustra was effectively ended in this country. Well,

(23:44):
there's a similar pattern has existed with anti gang laws,
and Georgia's in particular, and it can be done community
by community. When arresting and charging and sentencing under anti
gang law goes up, gang crime and recruiting in those
areas tends to go down. And when gang arresting, indicting,

(24:10):
and sentencing goes down, gang crime and recruiting tends to
go up. And that's not only a Georgia phenomenon.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
Currently, state officials say there are seventy thousand gang members statewide.
Authorities have been pointing to that number for years. Here's
Acting District Attorney of Cobb County John Melvin back in
twenty nineteen.

Speaker 8 (24:30):
In this state, we have over seventy thousand gang members,
and in our prison systems documented gang members exceed thirteen thousand.
As album is not even a crisis, that's an occupation.
I mean we're literally being occupied by a foreign army.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
Carlson doesn't believe this talk is hyperbole. In fact, he
prosecuted that case Melbourne was talking about when he was
an assistant DA in Cobb.

Speaker 3 (24:53):
Now, just imagine for every one of those gang members
that they recruited one more gang member and committed one
crime per month or per year and then you see
where we get the numbers from that about the SI
scope and magnitude of gang victimization and recruiting.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
I will note that there are about fifty thousand people
in Georgia's prisons today, and the head of the state's
Gang Investigation Association says fifteen thousand of those inmates claim
gang affiliations often simply is a matter of survival. Look,

(25:34):
there are about ten point six million people who live
in Georgia. Half a mail, that's five million, about twenty
five percent of that five million, or between the ages
of fifteen and thirty six, that's one point three million,
more than ninety percent of gang members or men and
boys in that age range. Gang cops want to argue

(25:56):
that one out of eighteen of those people are active
gang members. And that's before accounting for poverty or location.
Almost everyone in a gang is in the bottom thirty
percent of the income distribution. Now you're down to one
in six. I'm not buying that. I don't believe that

(26:18):
number is accurate or even possible. I think it's inflated.
Georgia's gang law requires prosecutors to prove three things. First,
they have to prove that a group of people is
a criminal street gang as it is defined by the law.
Prosecutors can use evidence of a common name, common identifying signs, symbols, tattoos, graffiti, clothes,

(26:43):
or other distinguishing characteristics, common activities, common customs, common behaviors.
But the most important part is that they have to
prove they plan and commit crimes as a group. Christopher
Sperry is Carlson's number two. He's the deputy district attorney
in charge of the gang unit.

Speaker 12 (27:05):
Being a gang is not criminal until they start doing
criminal gang activity. So those three individuals that may go
ahead and be throwing up hand signs we're in the
same clothes. They could go out and commit an armed robbery,
and that armed robbery is not yet gang activity. Because
we haven't established that pattern or that history of the

(27:26):
gang itself. We don't have to show that these individuals
themselves committed that crime, but we do have to show
that this is a criminal street gang.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
In the YSL case, the indictment describes the gang by
its use of YSL as a symbol flagging with green
or red bandanas, the wipe your nose hand sign, which
prosecutors say symbolizes killing someone and the use of the
word slat an acronym for slime love all the time.
But most of the indictment is about the crimes members

(27:54):
are accused of committing to show that it's a criminal
enterprise and not just a music label. Then prosecutors have
to prove that someone is a member of that gang.
In this social media age, this couldn't be easier.

Speaker 12 (28:07):
I'll tell you right now. Social media is, without a doubt,
the best function for being able to establish association with
a criminal streaking.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
The y cell indictment is peppered with references to Instagram
and YouTube videos showing the defendants throwing up hand signs,
carrying weapons, and making threats. Finally, prosecutors have to prove
someone committed a crime to further the gang's interests. There's
a set of crimes that qualify, which can be as
trivial as graffiti and as serious as murder. One knock

(28:36):
on gang prosecutions is that they're overbroad. Find three kids
on a street corner, call them a criminal streak gang,
and lock them up for an extra five years for
tagging the gas station. Carlson says that's not how Fulton
County is trying to do business.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
Here is law enforcement and prosecution's attention can get narrowed
to a smaller group of people, to it those who
are committing gang viole ones. Then that is able to
allow us to then be more freed up for what
would be more colloquially called criminal justice type reform measures

(29:11):
for other offenders. And not to say that those would
be would not apply to gang members, Certainly they do.
Certainly many people have been appropriately probated under our street
gang prosecution laws. So I just wanted to make it
clear that when that focus gets narrowed to gang crime
and gang recruiting, we get those volumeized and outsized results

(29:34):
for public safety on the prosecution of relatively speaking, very
few people.

Speaker 2 (29:39):
Another doc is how it allows all kinds of evidence
that could be considered prejudicial in standard cases. Normally, evidence
of bad character isn't allowed because a jury isn't judging
your character, it's judging whether you committed a crime. But
gang cases can be a little different because prosecutors have
to prove that you are in a gang, and the

(30:00):
kind of evidence they need for that might also make
someone look bad. A tattoo of a gun on your
arm might not be admissible if it's just something you
got to look cool. A tattoo of a tear drop
under your eye in a gang case might be admissible
if a prosecutor can show that the gang gets these tattoos.
Whenever someone commits a murder.

Speaker 3 (30:21):
You know, you've got the fundamental rule of relevance that
applies in court. It does, this piece of evidence, whatever
it is, makes something more or less likely to have
occurred in the case. You know, essentially that's the rule,
something material more or less likely to have occurred.

Speaker 2 (30:38):
And then if the.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
Evidence is relevant, well then it's presumptively admissible under another
rule that we have, unless the Constitution or another or
a specific rule or statute keeps it out. So the
onus is really on the people saying, well, this is bad,
I don't want it, in which they're not a rule

(31:00):
of evidence quote, I don't like it that doesn't fall
under a Georgia or federal evidence statute.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
Ultimately, the DA's office offers one overarching argument for their methods.
Sperry says, it's that fewer people in Atlanta are getting killed.

Speaker 12 (31:15):
There is a reason why the homicide rate has plummeted,
and George, I know that you have covered this. I
believe the last time I saw on Sunday, we are
thirty seven percent below where we were this time last year.
And we also have to compare that to what are
other cities at other cities were at twelve point five percent.
So what is it that Atlanta is doing that we

(31:36):
are three times reduced in relation to the homicides. And
not only that, but when you actually look at what
the homicides are, I don't see those interstate shootings that
we saw in twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two.
The homicides are much more domestic than they are gang
and so why is that? Well one to aggressive prosecution

(31:56):
under the Gang Act number two, the police are actually
in investigating this from the outset as gang cases. They
are trained and identifying and collaborating with our office and
making sure that we are taking those gang warrants to
begin with. So if any of those defendants are out
on bond, it criminalizes or makes it a condition to
their bond that they're not to continue to associate. You

(32:18):
choke out the oxygen from the gang itself by making
it so that way they can't continue.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
To collaborate, but even da Willis will attest to the
fact that policing and prosecutions are not a long term fix.

Speaker 9 (32:30):
We cannot arrest our way and we cannot prosecute our
way out of the gang problem.

Speaker 10 (32:36):
That's going to fail.

Speaker 9 (32:37):
So what we have to do is make sure that
we take as many children away from thinking that this
is sexy and this is attractive and leading them down
different paths.

Speaker 10 (32:48):
And so you have to have a double edged sword.

Speaker 9 (32:50):
I hope that you know for gang members, I am
hated and feared because I am not going to apologize
for bringing gang warrants or educating the police on how
to bring gang warrant and for prosecuting people that decide
to get into that life. At the same time, it's
important that we do activities that let children know this
only leads you to a casket or a jail cell.

Speaker 10 (33:13):
That's it.

Speaker 9 (33:13):
That's not sexy, that's not someplace that you want to
end up being. People do not enjoy that experience, and
you have so much potential, and there's so many other things.

Speaker 10 (33:22):
That you can do.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
To the wier. Sale defendants are already serving life sentences,
one of them facing a racketeering charge in the trial
is Rae Dlius Ryan. He was fifteen years old when
he and DeMont Blaylock shot a man dead in a
stone Blue Dodge Charger.

Speaker 15 (33:47):
Police say that just before five am they got a
call about shots fired here. The person they found shot
dead was a fifteen year old boy.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
Khaliff Adams, accused of trying to kill wife and Lucci
in jail, is also serving a life sentence for twenty
sixteen murder. The outcome of theyl case will change little
about that, Yet there's stories that become clear examples of
how this sweeping indictment has created chaos downstream.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
Just two weeks into the trial, on January nineteenth, Adams
slit a percocet into Young Thug's hand.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
One of the defendants in the Yasel trial, is accused
of passing drugs to Atlanta rapper Young Thug in the
middle of the courtroom.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
Deputy's caught the pass, searched him and found more drugs.
Young Thug wasn't charged, but the incident went viral on
social media and set a tone for the months to come.

Speaker 10 (34:38):
It wasn't even a discreet handlef.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
It was like, yo, my man, let's just slap me some
skin and just clearly handed him something.

Speaker 9 (34:46):
If I needed a percocet that bad, I would just
have to go all the way out with it.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
Don't pass it to me, just kiss me. It's bitt
it in my mouth.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
Four days later, on January twenty third, lil Rod and
sheriffs Deputy Morris kandaco I got into a brawl in
the back of a patrol vehicle.

Speaker 13 (35:02):
While waiting to be transported from the jail to the courthouse.
Ryan is accused of spitting on the floor of the van,
and when told that he would have to clean it up,
investigators say Ryan told them, I'm not cleaning it up,
exploit it.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
Kandakai's report says that Ryan spat in his face and
then fought as he was being pulled from the police vehicle,
but during the fight, Kandokai didn't activate his body camera
as required. Lol Rod's attorney, Angela to Williams, fought a
complete citing quote contusions on lil Rod's body from being
dragged from the patrol car to a nearby sidewalk.

Speaker 4 (35:36):
By client said, hewits because he was upset about something,
and they took that as him spitting.

Speaker 10 (35:41):
When they told him to get up the van.

Speaker 4 (35:42):
They just grabbed him before he had a chance by
his legs, dragged him out. His head hit the van
and they dragged him out some more.

Speaker 10 (35:48):
He actually hit the sidewalk.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
Kannakai was suspended. He had been previously fired from a
local police department for a similar violation in twenty twenty.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
On January thirty, first, three wires ol Code defendits were
k of knifing another person held at Fulton County Jail,
DeMarcus Bussy. Those defendants are Demon Blaylock, Christian Eppinger, and
LITL Rott.

Speaker 11 (36:09):
According to a report, a detention officer told Apinger to
get away from the other inmate, and he then pulled
out a shank and stabbed the inmate in the chest.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
Fulton County Jail has had a massive security problem for years,
and it's notorious for being overcrowded, dirty and dangerous rappers
and most people call it Rice Street. The sheriff has
had a difficult time keeping drugs out, and his confiscated
wheelbarrows filled with prison shanks.

Speaker 8 (36:38):
A high yield of high risk itdem cell phones and
homemade dives are shanks from the highest security floor in
the Fulton County Jail.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
And those shanks are wielded by people with nothing left
to lose but their lives, that is, unless they find
another way out. The Wisehell trial started with twenty eight
defendants in court. There are seven left. Two attorneys representing
defendants Khalif Adams, It's Quarius Mendor became pregnant. Those cases

(37:08):
were separated from the ISL trial.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
Jaden Myrick, who told the courts that he hadn't taken
his psychiatric medication since last December, will not be standing
trial after claiming quote Donald Trump is going to get
me out.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Demon Blaylock was also severed from the YL trial after
falling ill.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
Other defendants will not take the stand and efforts to
save time during the overall trial.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
The District Attorney's office says its process and gangcases is
about finding the smallest number of people responsible for the
biggest problems. Leaders get prison time, but underlings they can
get plea deals to help expedite the trial. Who gets
a plea bargain who doesn't.

Speaker 12 (37:47):
So my philosophy when I'm looking at plea recommendations is
oftentimes the first thing I look at is is this
the juvenile and I'm sorry, but you need to understand
oftentimes we're dealing with children. I understand the horrendous crimes,
but you also need to understand what their development is
as well as you know, do they have an opportunity
to have that second chance? But when I'm looking also

(38:10):
at deals, one of the things is not necessarily always
who pulled the trigger, because oftentimes you can remove one
of the people that pulls the trigger and this still happens.
Oftentimes you can remove the person who actually even pulled
the trigger and they'll find someone else to do it.
If you remove that person from the actual incident, does
the crime still happen? And that's really what I get

(38:30):
at is what is the culpability and the age of
the defendants and who can I remove from this equation
and this does not happen.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
One high profile YSL defendant took a plea deal before
the trials started. On December fourteenth, twenty twenty two, attorney
Steve Sadau email journalist a press release on behalf of
his client, defendant, Sergio Kitchens the rapper Gunna. What Gunna
had done was enter an Alford plea. That means while

(38:59):
he acknowledges that the core will likely find him guilty
and that a guilty plea is the swiftest way to
end his case. He maintains his innocence. He was sentenced
to five years in prison, but was given one year
of credit for time served and the rest of his
sentence was suspended. In his press statement, Gunna was adamant
about how prosecutors had mischaracterized WYSL. It begins quote, when I.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
Became affiliated with YSL in twenty sixteen, I did not
consider it a gang, more like a group of people
from Metro Atlanta who had common interests in artistic aspirations.
My focus of YSL was entertainment rap artists who wrote
and performed music that exaggerated and glorified urban life in
the black community.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
End quote. Hours after his plea, Gunna left Fulton County Jail,
pulling the hood of his black sweatshirt over his face.

Speaker 11 (39:49):
The Atlanta born rapper Ghanna, whose given name is Sergio Kitchens,
made a deal with prosecutors and walked out of the
Fulton County jail.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
But then the next day the fans found footage for
when Gunna was last in court. The footage is shot
from the courts gallery and show's gonna in jail scrubs,
drab and green sitting next to his attorneys.

Speaker 16 (40:14):
I became affiliated with why Cel around twenty and sixteen.

Speaker 5 (40:19):
Is that true as it pertains to U use your case?

Speaker 16 (40:23):
Yes, Why Cell is a music label and a game,
and you have personal knowledge that members are associates with
HYL have committee primes in.

Speaker 5 (40:33):
Parts of the game. Yes, you were present when.

Speaker 16 (40:38):
Law enforcement officers stopped the vehicle in which you were
present along with Jeffrey Williams, where in hydropoton, methamphetamans and
a firearm were recovered.

Speaker 5 (40:49):
These items did not belong to you, yes, ma'am.

Speaker 16 (40:54):
And do you acknowledge the following stavement I recognize, except
a deep leary bread that my talent and music indirectly
furthered Why sale the game to.

Speaker 5 (41:05):
The detriment of my community? Why is sale as a
game must be? Is that your statement or acknowledgment.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
Yes, these negotiations for a plea deal cannot be used
against the remaining defendants of the Ysol trial. Seta has
also tried his best to remind the public that technically
Gunna still has in cooperated with law enforcement.

Speaker 2 (41:24):
Gunna made it clear and a public statement released by
his attorney that his deal with prosecutors does not require
him to be a prosecution with this against the others.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
But because Gunna operates in a music genre that thrives
off this idea of street credibility, no matter how connected
those artists might actually be to that code, his fellow
artists interpreted these negotiations plainly as snitching, offering incriminating evidence
to beliee so he could walk out of Fulton County
jail dinging his own credibility. Willis says that this standard

(41:55):
could not be more disconnected from reality.

Speaker 9 (41:57):
Sometimes we will take a plea just to wrap up
that case, to get responsibility and closure for whatever that
situation is, and there's no testimony required. In other cases
it becomes a vital part of proving a codefendite up
and we do get pleased. But it's so interesting you
talk about snitching, because everybody hard right till they sitting

(42:20):
in that seat. And so I've been doing this, I
already said a very very long time.

Speaker 10 (42:25):
I personally have tried.

Speaker 9 (42:26):
You know, over one hundred homicides, prosecuted hundreds of them
because of pleas and other resolutions for cases. Literally all
I did for a very very long time. When people
get to sitting in that sneak, more often than not
they snitching because the choice is life or you can
tell what someone else did and what their involvement was.

(42:49):
And so that's real cool to say when you on
social media, But when it's you sitting in there and
your mama and your woman and you got a baby
on the way, you have all these other responsibility, he says,
a man, you need to tend to. You got to
make grown folk decisions for you and your family, and
so often the decision is I'm going to tell the
truth and wrap this up for me.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
People had already been wondering where was Kenneth Copeland Little Woody,
who is targeted for a robbery at Club Crucial in
twenty fifteen. Why wasn't he indicted with the twenty eight
defendants after all that robbery is, according to police and
Chuck c the first domino to fall in this gang war.

(43:32):
Then court paperwork made its way to the internet. Woody
had been talking to cops about gang crimes.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
A few months after Gunna left Right Street. A three
and a half hour video of a police interrogation lead
to YouTube. The video is shot from a surveillance camera.
In the tape, a man in a white T shirt,
tan cap, and distressed Cargo Jean sits in a black
and orange chair in a small gray room. He's cuffed
around the ankle right above his timbalands That man is

(44:03):
Kenneth Copeland aka Little Woody.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
The video as a date burned in October twenty seven,
twenty twenty one. A woman with long hair wearing all
black sits across for Woody at the table. Her name
is Marissa Vivrito. She's a gang unit investigator with the
Fulton County District Attorney's Office.

Speaker 5 (44:27):
Okay, here's your concern. Didn't you have a lawyer.

Speaker 7 (44:30):
So we got to make sure.

Speaker 5 (44:31):
I don't want to violate any of your writing. I
don't want to do anything with.

Speaker 9 (44:36):
Mister Melanie.

Speaker 5 (44:36):
Slow your turn right.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
Oh it's clear Vivrito and Woody have known each other
for some time. If it's not trust, there's at the
very least rapport between them. Woody has just been brought
in on a gun charge. He and an associate were
pulled over for swerving. Police found a weapon in Woody's
car and Ammo in his pocket, neither of which he's

(45:00):
allowed to possess since he's been convicted of a federal gunfelony.
Viverrito tells Woody he's likely headed back.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
To jail, but there may be some ways to help them.
She's got to have a conversation with some folks to
see what she can find out.

Speaker 17 (45:18):
Please give me one second.

Speaker 1 (45:22):
For nearly forty minutes, Lowoodie waits alone in the room.
His only company is a green plastic cup of water.
He mostly just sits there with his arms crossed, occasionally
puts his head on the table, and at one point
he stands to look out the small rectangular window in
the door, though his leg is pulled back toward the

(45:43):
table by the cuffs. By the time Viverito returns to
the room with another officer, Woody has his arms tucked
into his T shirt, trying to warm up, trying to
calm down.

Speaker 5 (45:55):
This is one of my partners. That's the Flores.

Speaker 4 (46:00):
The department.

Speaker 5 (46:03):
First and first, get.

Speaker 18 (46:05):
The riding ring silent, and you say.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
And we'll be used against you in a court of
Flora's has cop muscles showing through a tight gray T shirt,
black cap, is on backwards. He sits down next to Viverrito.
It's clear right away that these two cops aren't just
interested in why would he had a gun on him?

Speaker 5 (46:21):
You had immunition in your pocket. That's a federal for
hard right. So what I'm saying is right, we listen
to me. That's what you're looking at today. At we
can can He cannot make it clear. We cannot offer
you anything.

Speaker 17 (46:35):
If you want to tell us, then we can communicate
it to other people, but we cannot do anything.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
Vivrito and Flores really want to know what his friends
are up to, friends who, by this point law enforcement
has been watching a gathering information on for nearly a decade.
Friends who like Woody are associated with Yso, but he's
not going to give up that info unless he's promised
he won't go to jail, and he implies he's been

(47:03):
burned before.

Speaker 5 (47:04):
You want me to tell you your name and I
can do it. Go ahead at you and do my time.
I always do. You don't always do your time. Did
you did you go to jail for the nut incident?
Did you go to jail with nuts Murner?

Speaker 16 (47:16):
I don't do it, okay, So what I'm saying, is
you made him hit because my lawyer told me that
they did talk about any die young.

Speaker 5 (47:23):
I want to think I'm sorry. I'm no doubt at jail,
I didn't really go out of death.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
It's hard to make out, but what he is insisting
he had nothing to do with Donovan Thomas's death.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
But what he does say he's sitting on some valuable
and timely intel. Oh I'm supposed to be killed in
that he claims he knows of a hit that's gonna happen.

Speaker 5 (47:42):
I don't know people who are gonna go do it.
I can't get it down. I ain't gonna go to
do it. So y'all get in a head. It's hard
boy gets it. I mean, Lucie's like that ship a
kid somehow and dads get tighter?

Speaker 1 (48:02):
Who kill Shelle kel Is Kelvin Watts, the alleged Englewood
family associate who robbed Woody a club crucial way back
in twenty fifteen, that first Domino.

Speaker 5 (48:13):
And Tight who kill who's always been tight? Share kid
and him? He's mad, he's a facially he.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
Won't he's mad. He's obsessed with him. He wants him,
is what he says.

Speaker 5 (48:30):
There isn't what's second?

Speaker 18 (48:34):
You're like, I'm gonna get lost, And he said, who's
tight with.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
Shelle wood He looks over at the wall. He knows
the guy he was arrested with is in the next
room over.

Speaker 5 (48:43):
He's your friend's not here.

Speaker 3 (48:44):
Nobody can hear you.

Speaker 5 (48:45):
My friend's not here. We moved him. The version of y'all.
He's thinking, I take him anything. He won't him. He
want him his bed. So you're talking.

Speaker 1 (48:57):
About Jeffrey little. Woody nods? What are you saying that
Jeffrey young thug is targeting shell Kell.

Speaker 2 (49:08):
Shell Kell and Woody are sworn enemies when this interview
takes place. They've been battling back and forth on Instagram,
trading barbs and threats. Would Viverrito and Flores tell Woody
the info isn't enough. He offers more.

Speaker 5 (49:23):
Single person days and how much dagone gives and how
bay long it's days. Jeffs I'm not.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
Saying about Vivrito and Flores aren't moved what. He makes
another offer to call someone with the officers listening in,
ID you.

Speaker 5 (49:51):
Plan to get college from day long?

Speaker 12 (49:53):
And they hear what I have to say, and I
have to call this person right here in y'all face,
what a data day around?

Speaker 5 (50:00):
And is y'all hears face? Tell me how he came
home to me a call who the person won't talking about.

Speaker 12 (50:07):
I can't for him, and I hate I'm doing it
to him, But I don't think I see you know
some people I don't know somebody who is a young rug.

Speaker 5 (50:18):
I didn't single mean.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
Eventually, Viverito presses Woody on his relationship with young thug
and why he can't seem to get himself out of
the cycle of crime and violence alleged to be tied
to Why a self Have I.

Speaker 5 (50:31):
Had to talk about him ruining your life?

Speaker 13 (50:33):
Woody?

Speaker 5 (50:33):
How I had to talk about the ruin in your life?
What good has he brought to your life.

Speaker 7 (50:36):
That much better? Well, he has ruined your life.

Speaker 5 (50:40):
He's rumined with Shannon's life, He's ruined Dee's life.

Speaker 17 (50:44):
Pretty much everybody can touches goes to prison, and then
he gets new people.

Speaker 5 (50:48):
Y'all are replaceable. Y'all are just posed.

Speaker 17 (50:50):
Make no mistake about that, because once y'all in prison,
he started wait, wait a minute, I.

Speaker 5 (50:55):
Can't listen to me. Listen, you can tell somebody did
can't help him.

Speaker 17 (50:59):
But there's a lot more information than this. Sudn't They're
gonna have more information than this. Okay, you know, But
what I'm saying is it doesn't work. You're like, oh,
it's maybe go getting out here like like gay you
and have I ever left you out of you?

Speaker 2 (51:12):
Have I ever?

Speaker 5 (51:13):
I'll tell well, what did I tell you?

Speaker 16 (51:16):
Did I tell you that?

Speaker 5 (51:16):
It's nothing mag you. I'm going to be upset. I'm
not listening to you take out and talking to you
with that the issue.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
But what I'm saying is I have never left you
out here college when we met with Detective Kimberly Underwood
at the Atlanta Police Gang Unit, if if Rito was
with her, you heard from Underwood in the last episode.
So I'm going to ask this and you can tell
me to go to hell if you need to. The
little Woody tape like your I know. I just want

(51:45):
to know first things first, how that man? How how
irritated were you when that came out?

Speaker 18 (51:52):
Irritated because it's you're putting real people in danger, and
I don't think it's fair to anybody or I mean,
and that's a classic what happened with that as a
classic hallmark of gang activity. I think Kim will agree
with me. It's witness intimidation at its finest, and it's unfortunate.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
Witness intimidation in the sense that whoever leaked that was
attempting to intimidate Kenneth Copeland, right whoever it may be.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
The court and the District Attorney's office began an investigation
into the leak. They locked down the server that held
their evidence, but no one has been held accountable for
what happened. One defense attorney pushed for a mistrial. Snippets
of the interrogation tape have been reposted online, what titles
saying that Littlewoody was guessed it snitching.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
Vivarito had been talking with Lowoodie for years, including the
days following Donovan Thomas's murder, and she understands how folks
seeing that rapport could put lives like Woodies in jeopardy.
So I was watching the tape, I mean, you're talking
about talking to people like a real human being, like
regular And that's the thing that came across as I

(52:58):
was watching the tape was that you could build a
relationship with Kenneth Copeland over time, And I think that's
something that I think people don't fundamentally understand is that
there are relationships between the police and people who are
under investigation. Like how normal is that.

Speaker 19 (53:16):
I came initially from a probation and parole background, and
your goal in that situation is to basically help repair
a person's life after they get in some kind of
trouble and reduce to sudiism. And I had a case
a lot of all game members, the worst of the worst.
So I mean, regardless of what somebody did that they're with,
they want to do right and they want to have
a second chance.

Speaker 1 (53:33):
At your job to make sure.

Speaker 17 (53:33):
That they have it.

Speaker 2 (53:36):
Woo. He was charged for the gun that day, but
before he was led away in handcuffs, a sheriff's officer
paid him a visit in that little gray room. What
he did the same song and dance, claiming he could
provide valuable information if they could get him out of jail.
As we mentioned earlier, Fulton County jail is a dangerous place.
Remember the wheelbarrows full of shanks. The share officers says this, I.

Speaker 5 (54:02):
Don't go through their normal chance.

Speaker 20 (54:04):
Man.

Speaker 5 (54:05):
You can say I'm special in that sense, and this
is I understand entirely where you're coming from.

Speaker 14 (54:10):
You, because you know what, I do truly believe that
stuff is going on there.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
I'm not doubting that he's referring to the dangers in
the jail.

Speaker 5 (54:19):
And I don't want you to get.

Speaker 14 (54:20):
All fucked up because of something like that.

Speaker 5 (54:22):
That's the last thing I want to do. If you're
rolling the help out with something like that, I would
certainly not to put your life in danger with that.
So I understand entirely where you're coming from dead.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
So if it is something where I make up some
ruse that gets you out of the cell somewhere they
don't know where you're.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
Going to go, I'm just saying I can do that.
Seven months after this tape was recorded, Young Thug was arrested.
The eighty eight page indictment was handed up a little
wood He wasn't in the list of defendants. He isn't
in jail or prison either. The state dropped its charges
before Young thugs arrest.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
There's one more thing in the tape that struck us.
From about halfway into the interrogation, Marissa Everto gets frank
with Woody and what he responds in kind.

Speaker 5 (55:07):
They don't care he doesn't.

Speaker 1 (55:08):
Care anything about you.

Speaker 5 (55:09):
We've got to talk one hundred nine. He doesn't care
about you, kid, But.

Speaker 17 (55:14):
How many times do you wanna keep like getting just
raving by and just dodge your boats.

Speaker 5 (55:20):
You gotta stop at some point.

Speaker 2 (55:22):
Remember how I said in episode one that young Thug
must have known the police were coming, because even I
knew they were coming. Well, men, it's so good.

Speaker 1 (55:33):
I don't go around to.

Speaker 5 (55:36):
Im to shoot I did. I should didn't have gege you?

Speaker 2 (55:39):
He said, what I told you to go?

Speaker 5 (55:41):
Eegege you?

Speaker 16 (55:42):
Who do?

Speaker 3 (55:42):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (55:42):
I told you like the police, I said, as you did?
You know the gollengage?

Speaker 1 (55:48):
And so you don't care?

Speaker 3 (55:51):
No, I am.

Speaker 5 (55:54):
She ridly.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
Flimwoody is to be believed young thug? Did you just
didn't care?

Speaker 1 (56:06):
Next time on King Slime, we meet.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
The defense attorneys who say the scales of justice are
being tipped.

Speaker 3 (56:13):
They keep saying, well, we don't have gangs Act Chicago,
we have they're different here. Well, yeah, because they're not gangs,
they're just a group of kids.

Speaker 15 (56:19):
Are there people that claim wyl Or that are from
that neighborhood that have committed a crime before? Yes, But
ysl as a whole is not a gang, and that's
the problem that the DA's they know that, but they
don't care about that.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
Go inside the holding cell to find out why Lil
Rod was screaming.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
And unexpectedly find ourselves part of the proceedings.

Speaker 20 (56:48):
But I was told, and there's witnesses here, that they
were alerted to come to your honorable court today because
there was going to be something. News is a medium
was called allegedly by now I'm not saying any of
these prosecutors, but by somebody with their office. And if

(57:08):
that really happened, that's outrageous.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
King Slime is a production of iHeart Podcasts and Heirloom Media.

Speaker 2 (57:17):
It's written and produced by George Cheedy, Christina Lee, and
Tommy Andres.

Speaker 1 (57:21):
Mixing sound design and original music by Evan Tire and
Taylor Shakogne.

Speaker 2 (57:25):
The executive producer and editor is Tommy Andres.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
Fact checking by Kaylin lynch Our.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
Theme music is by Done Deal.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
Special thanks to the Alanta News outlets, eleven Alive, WSBTV,
Atlanta News First, and Fox.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
Five Carl Catle and o Amy Griffin.

Speaker 1 (57:44):
For more shows from iHeart Podcasts, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts,