Young Thug Trial Judge, Prosecutor & Defense Argue Over Law & Crime Video of Plea Hearing

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Should the jury in the Young Thug / YSL racketeering trial see the video of confessed YSL gang co-founder Trontavious Stephens pleading guilty? That’s the issue being debated in this video.

Fulton County Chief Deputy District Attorney Adriane Love wanted to question Tick aka Slug about the video on Tuesday, but an argument over the admissibility of the video ended up taking up most of the afternoon.

Tick took a plea deal in December 2022 that requires his testimony in trial, so it’s totally standard that the defense would try to question that deal. They want the jury to think there are other reasons for Tick pleading guilty other than him being actually guilty. It’s also standard that prosecutors would go over the deal and emphasize that Tick entered his plea freely and voluntarily.

What is not standard is the existence of a YouTube video showing the witness actually pleading guilty. That’s the issue in the YSL trial: The prosecutor went over Tick’s plea agreement on paper with him in direct-examination, which is standard in any trial. Now she wants to show the jury some of the video of Tick’s plea hearing in re-direct exam to counter cross-examination questions that implied Tick didn’t know what he was doing when he pleaded guilty.

It’s an unusual issue – lawyers I talked to say they’ve never seen a video of a proceeding used as evidence in another proceeding. It’d be easy if the video was an official court video, but it’s not.

Shannon Stillwell’s lawyer Max Schardt argued for the defense, and he quickly took issue with the Law & Crime insignia on the video. He also tried arguing against the entire video, with push back from D.A. Love.

05:10 Judge Ural Glanville agrees with Schardt about the video possibly being “bolstering” meaning the courtroom setting and presence of the judge approving Tick’s plea could make the jury give more validity to the plea than they otherwise would.

05:45 “Of course as you all both know if this is wrong, it’s very bad,” Judge Glanville said. He’s referring to what could happen if any of the defendants get convicted of anything then appeal, and the appellate court sees an issue with the jury having seen the plea hearing and heard stuff in the hearing they shouldn’t have heard.

08:00 Prosecutor plays part of video of Tick’s plea

09:00 “A headline comes up that ‘Judge Shocked YSL Defendants Reject Deal’ or something,” Schardt says

“It’s fake news. it didn’t occur,” Judge Glanville says. “A third-party’s trying to attribute to me something that isn’t true.” (It’s embarrassing for legal journalism that people do that. The video is actually Glanville explaining to the YSL defendant what could happen if he rejects a plea deal and goes to trial. Law&Crime puts “shocked” in the headline because apparently we’re already living in idiocracy.)

11:30 “Excuse me!” “You’re excused.”

The discussion about what Tick was facing was weird — I agree with Schardt that it’s relevant to the jury because they should know what Tick was facing. Judge Glanville is right that jurors don’t decide punishment, but that’ snot the issue here.

12:44 Young Thug’s lawyer Brian Steel speaks up to point out the relevancy of the 20-year possible sentence Tick was facing. Judge Glanville agrees but still says he’ll exclude. His reasoning touches why I don’t think this video should be shown at all: This is cumulative. Jurors have already heard all about the details of Tick’s plea and what it entailed.

14:08 Love explains why she wants to use the video.

18:10 The heightened concern is what led to the hoopla over Tick’s attorney-client privilege and a conversation he has with his lawyer, Kristi Gladden, that’s audible on the Law & Crime video.

22:15 As Love points out, the supposedly privileged conversation has already been on the Internet for all to hear.

23:42 “That aint in the paper tho!”
Listening to the discussion, it’s easy to get caught up in the legal drama and think that Tick’s conversation with Gladden is somehow anything but innocuous. I went back to the video and found the discussion in question, and it’s hardly anything.

24:18 Back in trial (with the jury gone), Gladden gets back from talking with Tick and says he’s fine with the conversation being redacted, which misses the point: They don’t want to redact the conversation, they want to let it play for the jury.

25:30 This leads to Judge Glanville putting Tick on the stand to get it on the record that’s he’s OK with the conversation playing.

As of Thursday, Jan. 25, the jury hasn’t seen the video because trial is off until next Monday. Stay tuned!

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