A ring camera in the area of a home where a shooting took place allegedly captured Young Thug’s voice on the video, but his lawyers are challenging the evidence to have it excluded in the ongoing trial.
The YSL Rico case continued on Monday (May 15) with jury selection and various new developments, including another defendant severed, leaving only 9 defendants from the original 28 charged in the case.
The case appears to be dwindling in the number of defendants, but Young Thug’s lawyers are not leaving anything to chance as a new motion filed by his legal team seeks to exclude the evidence, which is allegedly of the rapper at the scene of a shooting.
One of the many pieces of evidence submitted in discovery is a ring camera footage/ audio from a March 2022 shooting in which a home was shot up ten times during a drive-by. According to prosecutors, the investigating officer had spoken through the home’s Ring doorbell to communicate with an occupant. The exchange was captured on his bodycam, and that audio from the bodycam supposedly picked up Young Thug’s voice in the recording.
However, Thug’s lawyers, Brian Steel and Keith Adams, are challenging the evidence and want it to be inadmissible according to Evidence Law rules, especially since there is nothing to definitively identify the “Go Crazy” artist, AllHipHop reported.
If Young Thug is successful, this would make the second successful motion for suppressing evidence by the rapper. Four months ago, the rapper’s lawyers successfully argued that evidence taken by police from a cell phone be removed from the trial because it was still ‘Fruit of the Poisonous Tree’ a doctrine in Evidence Law that promulgates the exclusionary rule to make evidence inadmissible if it was derived from evidence (the phone) that was illegally obtained (defective warrant).
In the meantime, the judge is yet to make a ruling on that matter. As for Young Thug, the rapper returned to court on Monday after being out twice last week due to illness, resulting in him having to be taken to the hospital. His lawyer, Keith Adams, had said the artist’s health was failing due to prison conditions and the demands of the trial, being up early and barely getting enough sleep.
Judge removed defendant from YSL Rico trial
As for new developments, the court last week severed defendant Jayden Myrick from the trial. He will be tried separately.
On Monday (May 15), the defendants’ list was whittled down further to nine (9) remaining defendants as Damone Blalock was severed from the trial reportedly after becoming sick in court.
Blalock’s lawyer Justin Hill was not in favor of the severing of the indictment.
The original indictment started with 28 defendants, eight (8) of whom accepted plea deals while two were never arrested.
The latest severing adds to eight (8) defendants who will now have separate trials.
