LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 10: Young Thug attends the 61st Annual GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center on February 10, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
The state of Georgia says it will be calling 300 witnesses during Young Thug and Gunna‘s RICO trial, which will likely require months of testimony, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The trial of the two Atlanta rappers and 26 other defendants is set to start in January in Fulton County.
The state had said it could take three-and-a-half months to complete calling all the witnesses during trial, with Judge Glanville positing that it will likely take closer to o six to nine months, according to George Chidi, a reporter with The Atlanta Objective.
Chidi happened to be in court on Thursday and revealed that sheriff’s deputies arrested a court bystander for reportedly having a phone in court.
Reactions to the news made their rounds on social media, with many expressing shock at the sheer number of witnesses the state plans to call upon.
“They got 300 witnesses they’re calling on in that RICO case against Young Thug and YSL. They are making sure he never gets out of prison. How many years they’ve been building this case?” one person tweeted.
Another wrote “they are definitely getting random people off the street to testify against young thug 300 people? No damn way.”
“Ugh. They are cooked,” a third tweeted. “🤦🏾 they tryna fry these guys man….300 witnesses???” another commenter noted.
As The Shade Room exclusively reported last week, Young Thug‘s lawyers are looking to have his RICO case dismissed based on a technicality, accusing the district attorney of filing “sham” and “fake” grand jury subpoenas as the rap star continues to languish in Georgia’s Cobb County Jail.
On November 3, Brian Steel of The Steel Law Firm, who is representing Thugger, filed a motion to dismiss all charges against their client on grounds of prosecutors abusing “it’s authority by utilizing a sham Grand Jury Subpoena.”
Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, had his bond denied this summer and will remain behind bars until at least 2023 as his case is adjudicated.
Essentially, Steel’s motion to dismiss accuses the District Attorney of issuing a subpoena in April 2016 to retrieve a rental car they alleged was used for the crimes Thugger is accused of committing.
Steele says the subpoena was “not issued or authorized by any Judge, Clerk of Court, or lawfully or properly empaneled Grand Jury.”
The motion went on to say that the “sham” and “fake” grand jury subpoena was sent to both Thug and Hertz, which was used to forcefully compel the company to fork over crucial information regarding a car rented in Thugs’ name.
