Yak Gotti, defendant in YSL gang and racketeering trial, stabbed in jail
ATLANTA — One of two men who was indicted along with rapper Young Thug and who is awaiting a jury verdict appeared in court Monday after he was stabbed in jail over the weekend.
Attorney Doug Weinstein confirmed that his client, Deamonte Kendrick, who raps as Yak Gotti, was injured Sunday. Jurors returned Monday and are deliberating whether to convict Kendrick and Shannon Stillwell on gang, murder, drug and gun charges.
A judge sentenced Young Thug to 40 years with the first five to be served in prison, but commuted to time served, followed by 15 years on probation.
Kendrick returned to court with four or five staples in his head, Weinstein said during a news conference outside the Fulton County Courthouse, but “he’s doing really well.”
“It’s a shame that anyone that’s held in our jails have to go through that,” Weinstein said.
Natalie Ammons, Fulton County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman, said in an email that Kendrick and another detainee got in a fight at the jail’s southern annex in Union City. Kendrick was treated for “minor injuries from a sharp object,” she wrote. An investigation into the fight is underway, she said.
A third Atlanta judge will oversee Young Thug’s months-long racketeering trial, after the second judge appointed to the YSL case recused herself this week.
Weinstein complained that it was difficult for him to get answers from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office about what happened but added that he thinks Kendrick was stabbed with “some type of an improvised shank.”
Kendrick is hardly thinking about the stabbing, Weinstein said. Instead, he’s preoccupied with the impending verdict as jurors continue to deliberate a year after opening statements began.
“Deamonte does not want to be in jail, and this incident does not make things any better,” Weinstein said. “But he’s there. He knows, or at least he hopes and is confident, that he’s going to be out soon.”
Kendrick’s co-defendant, Shannon Stillwell, was stabbed at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta last year, which put the long-running trial on pause.
The RICO trial against rapper Young Thug and YSL is being delayed after co-defendant Shannon Stillwell was stabbed multiple times in Fulton County Jail.
Kendrick and Stillwell were among 28 people indicted along with Young Thug in May 2022 on charges including conspiring to violate Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Jury selection for the trial of six of those defendants began nearly two years ago.
Four of the defendants, including Young Thug, pleaded guilty in October. The rapper, whose given name is Jeffery Williams, was freed on probation. Stillwell and Kendrick rejected plea deals after more than a week of negotiations, and their lawyers chose not to present evidence or witnesses.
The jury started deliberating last Tuesday afternoon and was dismissed at 5 p.m. Jurors deliberated for about six hours Wednesday before breaking for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Kramon writes for the Associated Press. Kramon is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.
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