Young Thug‘s RICO trial has continued its track record of bizarre twists and turns — and this time, the trial is making headlines due to a witness’ failure to correctly identify Thugga’s brother.
During the prosecution’s direct examination of a witness on Thursday (December 7), the witness was asked to identify Quantavious Grier — who is Young Thug’s brother — in the courtroom.
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“Well, he was sittin’ over there, but I don’t know where he’s sittin’ at now,” the witness testified, later clarifying that he believed Grier was “sittin’ next to the light-skinned dude.”
The witness faltered, however, when the prosecutor asked him to describe what Grier was allegedly wearing in the courtroom, before the witness stated that he would “have to see that person again” before he could determine what, precisely, Grier was wearing.
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It’s worth noting that it would actually be impossible for anybody to identify Grier in the courtroom — or anywhere else — because he was ordered to serve the entirety of his felony murder sentence of nearly 10 years behind bars back in June 2023.
As it turned out, the witness was describing another attorney in the courtroom. Check out the video of the strange testimony below.
Young Thug’s brother incorrectly identified by state witness in bizarre court moment
via: @LawCrimeNetworkpic.twitter.com/r0c7jliDJW
— HipHopDX (@HipHopDX) December 7, 2023
The YSL RICO trial officially got off the ground on November 27 after months of delays and over a year-and-a-half since Thug was placed behind bars.
According to Billboard, the room opened with Fulton County Chief Deputy District Attorney Adriane Love reading a passage from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book about wolf packs, then drawing the comparison to YSL, saying that Thug’s gang had similarly “operated as a pack.”
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“For 10 years and counting, the group calling itself ‘Young Slime Life’ dominated the Cleveland Avenue community,” Love claimed. “They created a crater … that sucked in the youth and innocence and even the lives of some its youngest members.”
The hearing started over an hour late, however, because a juror was missing. In addition, Love did not finish her opening statement, as minutes into it, there were so many objections that Judge Ural Glanville was forced to clear the jury from the courtroom.
Young Thug’s legal team claimed that she was “burden shifting” in her explanation of the case to jurors – wrongly making it appear that the defendants would need to prove that they were innocent. Eventually, Thugger’s lawyer, Brian Steel, moved for a mistrial after he claimed Love had shown jurors evidence that had already been banned from the case.
The request was denied, though Judge Glanville did reprimand Love and her team for how they opened. A lunch break was then called and there were “extended disputes” between both sides, and jurors returned to continue opening statements through the afternoon.
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The next day (November 28), in front of a packed courtroom, Brian Steel revealed that “Thug” is an acronym — and a rather holy one at that.
“What [the name] means to Jeffery is something very personal,” the lawyer said. “It was his pact that if he could ever make it as a musical artist, and help his family, himself, and many others out of this endless cycle of hopelessness, he would be Truly Humbled Under God. That’s what ‘Thug’ means.”
The trial is expected to last upwards of one year.
