On Friday (June 7), Young Thug’s RICO trial resumed in Fulton County Superior Court with key testimony from Kenneth Copeland, also known as Lil Woody. However, Judge Ural Glanville was informed by prosecutors that the witness’ attorney, John Melnick, requested all communication with his client be ceased.
“If you don’t testify, I, as the judge in this case, have several remedies. One of those is that I could hold you in contempt in jail because the way that you get out of that contempt is to just testify,” Glanville responded, adding, “That’s the only thing they wanted in this case.”
After a break, court resumed with Copeland taking the stand. Although things apparently didn’t go as planned, considering he later invoked the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. “I’m grown,” the man said, “I plead the fifth.”
Initially, Copeland was granted immunity so that his statements regarding previous convictions could not be used against him. His criminal background includes a 2018 conviction for bringing an assault rifle into a public gym, which he left unattended on the bleachers while he played basketball. The man was eventually arrested after a public tip-off.
Meanwhile, in 2021, Copeland was detained after police discovered a weapon during a traffic stop. Although he was facing a potential 10-year sentence for possessing a firearm as a felon, he avoided harsher penalties by cooperating with authorities during a three-hour interrogation. During the session, he provided information about various crimes and expressed willingness to assist in obtaining a confession from Thug.
Thug was arrested in May 2022 along with 27 other individuals as part of a sweeping 56-count indictment targeting YSL aka Young Stoner Life Records. Prosecutors allege the acronym stands for Young Slime Life, which they also claim is a criminal street gang. The defense, however, argues that the acronym was merely a record label.
In April, it was announced that the witness list in Thug’s case had been reduced from 700 to 200. Notably, Gunna and Unfoonk, the latter of whom was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2023, were absent from it.