The Young Thug trial is in full swing, but the prosecution seems to have difficulty getting witnesses to cooperate.
On Tuesday, Chief Judge of the Fulton County Superior Court, Ural Glanville, denied the prosecution’s motion to have an unprecedented number of witnesses testify during the trial. The prosecution has been adding witnesses to its original list, ballooning it to around 700 people, but the judge ordered that only a list of 200 witnesses will be allowed.
Among those who won’t be testifying are Gunna, who took an Alford plea in the same case, Lil Wayne, and others. The witnesses appearing on the stand are not as cooperative as the prosecution may have expected. On Wednesday, witness D’Angelo White upbraided the prosecution for bringing him to court.
“Who is Walter Murphy?” the witness reverse questions the prosecutor.
He denied knowing Murphy (known as DK), who was charged along with Young Thug. Murphy took a plea deal and admitted he co-founded the YSL gang. He is scheduled to appear as a witness in the trial.
“After you checked on everybody, detectives asked you if you were shown a photograph of a lineup of DK, would you be able to identify him, and you told him yes?” White responds, “Did I or did somebody else tell him?”
The exchange gets interesting as the prosecutor presses White for an admission. The prosecutor claims White agreed to cooperate with the investigator if his name is kept confidential.
“Why would I tell you anything if this has nothing to do with me? This case don’t even have nothin’ to do with me. I’m just here free will and free ride trip because you brought me up here. I never told you I’d testify against this man. I don’t even know none of these guys in the courtroom,” White maintains.
White is reportedly a victim of an alleged murder attempt in April 2015. His 911 call was introduced by prosecutors who claim. However, he claims that he is not the victim of the call.
White is not the only witness who has been difficult for the prosecution.
On Tuesday, White refused to answer and was adamant that he wanted to be taken back to jail.
“I’m ready to go back to prison,” White says. He added, “I’m here just trying to do my time and go back home. You’re not understanding me…I’m ready to go back to prison.”
On Wednesday, Walter Murphy was called to the stand after White was dismissed.
Murphy revealed that he had known Young Thug, also called Jeffery Williams, for many years through Thug’s family, who stayed at one of his apartments. The prosecution is hoping to elicit testimony that Murphy started a gang with Young Thug, as admitted by him in his plea deal.
Investigator implicated in text message scandal
In the meantime, this week started eventfully with defense lawyers showing text messages sent from an investigator in which he appeared to ask her on dates to discuss the case. The text messages revealed that the investigator had written the woman multiple times on a personal note, in one instance even sending her motivational messages as a single mother and others asking her on a date.
The behavior of the investigator has brought embarrassment to the prosecution as defense lawyers capitalize on the negative perception it brings.
