NBA YoungBoy is set to stand trial for gun charges in California and Baton Rouge this month.
NBA YoungBoy‘s federal gun trial in Louisiana is set to take place on July 11, with a jury to determine whether the rapper is guilty of several drugs and illegal firearms offenses. Simultaneously, his California case also begins on July 12.
NBA YoungBoy is among 16 people arrested on drug and firearm charges in Baton Rouge over a year ago. According to Baton Rouge police, the rapper is facing multiple drug charges following a gathering on September 28, 2020, in Baton Rouge. YoungBoy spent over a year in jail before getting bond in late 2021.
The rapper is set to face trial in Baton Rouge in the upcoming week (July 11) and, if convicted, could get 7-10 years in jail. As for the California case, the case will begin before a jury on July 12. At least one lawyer believes that the rapper stands a good chance of beating the case as the prosecution’s primary evidence is now relying on rap lyrics and social media posts since no guns exist in the case.
According to LawyersForWorkers on Instagram, the prosecution faces a difficult task in the upcoming trial as there are no fingerprints.
“Are there fingerprints, are there DNA evidence showing that he held the gun, there’s no DNA evidence tying NBA YoungBoy to the gun they found in the car… they’re gonna use rap lyrics and pictures of him holding guns to argue,” that the rapper is guilty.
In the meantime, his Baton Rouge case also recorded a victory recently when the judge struck out one of the primary pieces of evidence the prosecution was relying on against the rapper.
The rapper’s legal team has argued that the prosecution does not have enough evidence to convict him as most of their evidence was based on videos that were ruled inadmissible by a judge in February.
In that ruling, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Shelly Dick ruled in favor of the rapper as she noted that prosecutors did not provide a good enough legal argument for how her video suppression ruling could cause “miscarriage of justice” at the rapper’s trial.
The videos secured by the prosecution are personal videos police seized at the time of his arrest in 2020 because the police acquired them on an improper search warrant.
“The government fails to explain how a miscarriage of justice will occur if the court does not grant its motion. Rather, the government offers two additional arguments its original opposition. But the time to raise those arguments has passed,” Judge Dick said.
Videos are from an SD memory card showing YoungBoy in possession of one or more firearms shortly before his arrest.
Among the arguments raised by the prosecution that the videos should be admitted were that YoungBoy displayed the guns in public and, therefore, no privacy issues arose, and they also raised that he didn’t even have locus standing in challenging the admissibility since he didn’t own the property which contained the videos.
“The compelling evidence of Gaulden’s brazen criminal activity should not be excluded from trial because Gaulden’s personal rights were not violated by the searches and seizures at issue. It was Gaulden’s burden to prove standing, and he did not do so. The video evidence should therefore be admitted at trial,” the prosecutors said in March.
The judge also noted that the police acted without authority when they responded to a “rap video” complaint that the rapper and others were brandishing weapons on September 27, 2020, and another complaint about firearms from an anonymous 911 the next day.
“The whole truth would have included that the tip about the rap video came in on September 27 — not September 28 — which would have negated probable cause to search the SD cards and camera for evidence of who possessed firearms or narcotics on September 28,” Judge Dick ruled in May.
The guns, in particular, were found at the rapper’s home, and the police were using the video to connect him to the guns.
