Fani Willis Responds to Critics after YSL Trial Ends with Zero Murder Convictions
After coming under fire for not securing any murder convictions in the YSL RICO case, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis stood her ground on the overall effectiveness of her team on Thursday.
'Crime is down,' Willis said during an interview with 11Alive in the lobby of Atlanta City Hall. 'What my constituents say, who just voted [for] me by 68%, is, 'She's doing an amazing job.''
Her answer was in response to being questioned directly about her team's inability to secure murder convictions for any of the eight defendants who were charged with murder in the sprawling racketeering case that began three years ago.
Read More: After Fani Willis Drops YSL Murder Charge, Defendant Is Sentenced to 5 Years
Demise McMullen, the final defendant facing a murder charge, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in court Thursday. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop the murder charges against him.
McMullen is the seventh out of eight to plead guilty to a lesser charge.
Last week, Damekion Garlington was sentenced to five years in prison by a Fulton County Superior Court judge. He was originally facing life in prison if convicted on all charges — including murder and attempted murder — but he entered into an Alford plea with the district attorney's office. An Alford plea allows a defendant to maintain their innocence while admitting the prosecution likely has enough evidence to secure a conviction.
In exchange for prosecutors agreeing to downgrade the murder charge to aggravated assault and drop the attempted murder charge, the 29-year-old pleaded guilty.
Garlington had been Willis' last hope to hold one of the four people charged with the 2022 murder of Shymel Drinks accountable. Drinks was central to the prosecution's argument that Atlanta rapper Young Thug and 27 others were members of a criminal street gang called YSL. Last year, Willis' team dropped murder charges against Miles Farley and Quamarvious Nichols, two of the three other defendants charged with Drinks' murder, in exchange for guilty pleas on lesser charges. The third, Shannon Stillwell, was found not guilty in early December.
Critics had honed in on the resources and manpower spent to prosecute this one case throughout the trial, which only exacerbated the issues with the case backlog that began during the 2020 pandemic.
'My message to taxpayers is, it was an amazing time. We had 19 convictions. The community is safer. We made sure that we got the resolutions we want. If they're unhappy with sentencing, they should elect other judges,' Willis said.
Despite the district attorney's office asking for 20-year sentences to be served, the majority of defendants were sentenced to just a few years in jail and 10 to 15 years on probation.
Willis, however, maintains that the case was a success, and pointed out that seven of the people she declined to prosecute are already serving life sentences after being convicted of other crimes.
Read More: State NAACP Calls for Appeal in Fatal Atlanta Police Shooting After Judge Drops Charges
Over the past few years, Willis has faced praise and criticism for her aggressive use of Georgia's RICO law, which she also employed to prosecute President Donald Trump and his associates on allegations of attempting to interfere in the 2020 presidential election. With the Trump trial on hold until 2029, and the YSL case likely to conclude with all convictions coming from guilty pleas instead of guilty verdicts, Willis' most successful RICO case remains the Atlanta cheating scandal trial.
Until it was usurped by YSL proceedings, the trial against Atlanta Public Schools' teachers and administrators was the longest trial in Georgia history and ended with 34 convictions for Willis, then an assistant district attorney. She secured 12 guilty pleas and 11 guilty verdicts.
The post Fani Willis Responds to Critics after YSL Trial Ends with Zero Murder Convictions appeared first on Capital B News - Atlanta.
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Yahoo
a day ago
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Fani Willis Responds to Critics after YSL Trial Ends with Zero Murder Convictions
After coming under fire for not securing any murder convictions in the YSL RICO case, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis stood her ground on the overall effectiveness of her team on Thursday. 'Crime is down,' Willis said during an interview with 11Alive in the lobby of Atlanta City Hall. 'What my constituents say, who just voted [for] me by 68%, is, 'She's doing an amazing job.'' Her answer was in response to being questioned directly about her team's inability to secure murder convictions for any of the eight defendants who were charged with murder in the sprawling racketeering case that began three years ago. Read More: After Fani Willis Drops YSL Murder Charge, Defendant Is Sentenced to 5 Years Demise McMullen, the final defendant facing a murder charge, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in court Thursday. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop the murder charges against him. McMullen is the seventh out of eight to plead guilty to a lesser charge. Last week, Damekion Garlington was sentenced to five years in prison by a Fulton County Superior Court judge. He was originally facing life in prison if convicted on all charges — including murder and attempted murder — but he entered into an Alford plea with the district attorney's office. An Alford plea allows a defendant to maintain their innocence while admitting the prosecution likely has enough evidence to secure a conviction. In exchange for prosecutors agreeing to downgrade the murder charge to aggravated assault and drop the attempted murder charge, the 29-year-old pleaded guilty. Garlington had been Willis' last hope to hold one of the four people charged with the 2022 murder of Shymel Drinks accountable. Drinks was central to the prosecution's argument that Atlanta rapper Young Thug and 27 others were members of a criminal street gang called YSL. Last year, Willis' team dropped murder charges against Miles Farley and Quamarvious Nichols, two of the three other defendants charged with Drinks' murder, in exchange for guilty pleas on lesser charges. The third, Shannon Stillwell, was found not guilty in early December. Critics had honed in on the resources and manpower spent to prosecute this one case throughout the trial, which only exacerbated the issues with the case backlog that began during the 2020 pandemic. 'My message to taxpayers is, it was an amazing time. We had 19 convictions. The community is safer. We made sure that we got the resolutions we want. If they're unhappy with sentencing, they should elect other judges,' Willis said. Despite the district attorney's office asking for 20-year sentences to be served, the majority of defendants were sentenced to just a few years in jail and 10 to 15 years on probation. Willis, however, maintains that the case was a success, and pointed out that seven of the people she declined to prosecute are already serving life sentences after being convicted of other crimes. Read More: State NAACP Calls for Appeal in Fatal Atlanta Police Shooting After Judge Drops Charges Over the past few years, Willis has faced praise and criticism for her aggressive use of Georgia's RICO law, which she also employed to prosecute President Donald Trump and his associates on allegations of attempting to interfere in the 2020 presidential election. With the Trump trial on hold until 2029, and the YSL case likely to conclude with all convictions coming from guilty pleas instead of guilty verdicts, Willis' most successful RICO case remains the Atlanta cheating scandal trial. Until it was usurped by YSL proceedings, the trial against Atlanta Public Schools' teachers and administrators was the longest trial in Georgia history and ended with 34 convictions for Willis, then an assistant district attorney. She secured 12 guilty pleas and 11 guilty verdicts. The post Fani Willis Responds to Critics after YSL Trial Ends with Zero Murder Convictions appeared first on Capital B News - Atlanta.
Yahoo
3 days ago
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Case of mistaken identity ends with young mother killed in alleged Atlanta gang shooting
A case of mistaken identity ended with a gang murder. A young mother was gunned down in her car with her baby just inches away as she took her final breaths. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Jamal Baker made many mistakes on the morning of May 18, 2024, and murder was the biggest. A mistaken identity murder after Baker, Young Slime Life—or YSL gang member and two co-conspirators, all caught on camera in hoodies, mistook the car in which 21-year-old Ne'Jha Sapphire Cox was riding with her two-year-old son for someone else's car. They fired more than three dozen times, says the Fulton County District Attorney's Office Gang Unit Senior Asst. District Attorney Amanda Green. 'The child was there the whole time, and he was able to observe his mother bleed out until she was no longer alive,' Green said. 'She has absolutely nothing to do with gang violence or gang life. She's not a criminal,' District Attorney Fani Willis said. TRENDING STORIES: Family grieves loss of 30-year-old father shot to death in his truck on busy DeKalb road Man runs from drug deal, jumps into GA pond to escape deputies, officials say 19 arrested for stealing thousands from Mall of Georgia Green says almost a year to the day after the shooting, a jury convicted Baker of murder, gang charges and more. '...life without parole. Judge Farmer sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole plus 65 years,' Green explained. Green says intelligence suggests the black Nissan in which Cox, her baby and a driver travelled was mistaken for a blue Nissan used by a man with a hit out on him. A bounty because of suspicions he shot up a music video shoot for music superstar Dominique Jones, known as Lil Baby, on Verbena Street in Atlanta four days earlier. Green says Lil Baby was not mentioned at trial other than in jury selection and who may have taken it upon themselves to order the possible hit remains a mystery. 'The district attorney's office has absolutely no evidence that Lil Baby had any connection to this hit. Nothing could be corroborated that he knew about it or that he directed it in any way. So we don't have any evidence that he had any part in this young lady's demise or the trauma that her child will suffer for the rest of their life,' Willis said. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] Green says video shows Baker in a light colored hoodie and two others as they walk toward an apartment complex to look for their intended target. Then they walked around a corner toward a woodline where they lay in wait and the car carrying Cox came out of the complex into an ambush. 'When that vehicle passes that area of the wood line, it is shot up and we have 39 casings,' Green explained. Records indicate Baker was convicted of two gang charges and acquitted of two more, but all describe YSL as a criminal street gang. 'It's no joke when a two-year-old watches their 21-year-old mother die,' Willis said. Green says Baker's two co-defendants are scheduled for trial this month. A spokesperson for Baker released the following statement to Channel 2 Action News: 'The Defender Council's Appellate Office represents Mr. Jamal Runtae Baker. A team of skilled appeals attorneys, investigators, and administrators is working in support of the new trial motion and looks forward to zealously representing Mr. Baker in future filings and court proceedings, but must decline further comment at this time.' Channel 2 Action News has also reached out to Lil Baby's attorney, but has not yet heard back.
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3 days ago
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Long-running Young Thug gang trial to end without any murder convictions
ATLANTA (AP) — Three years after Atlanta rapper Young Thug and 27 others were indicted on gang and racketeering charges, followed by a long, problem-plagued trial, nobody will be convicted of murder. When Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis announced the indictment in May 2022, she said her office was cracking down on a violent street gang responsible for multiple killings run by Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams. But Willis dropped the only remaining murder charge Monday after defendant Demise McMullen pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of aggravated assault. Young Thug went home Oct. 31 after pleading guilty to gang, drug and gun charges and remains on probation. Prosecutors alleged that Young Thug and two others founded the street gang Young Slime Life, which was associated with the Bloods street gang, in 2012. The 33-year-old artist has a record label called Young Stoner Life, which prosecutors alleged was tied to Young Slime Life. A long and controversial trial Prosecutors drew ire for using song lyrics and social media posts in their case. Attorney Doug Weinstein, who represented defendant Deamonte Kendrick, who raps under the name Yak Gotti, said prosecutors targeted men who pursued music as a way out of hardship in economically 'deprived' Atlanta areas and tried to 'claw them back in, hold them back down.' 'Whatever they may have done in their youth, and I would argue most of them didn't do anything, to be targeted in this way by the prosecutors is just wrong,' said Weinstein. 'Whatever you think of their music — the violence, the misogynistic lyrics — that is not a reason to go after these guys.' Weinstein continued, adding, 'People like my client, Mr. Kendrick, had to be incarcerated for 2 1/2 years or more, in the case of some of these defendants, for a crime that they didn't do.' Kendrick was stabbed in jail. He was one of two defendants who didn't take plea deals, and the only one cleared of all charges, including a murder charge in the 2015 drive-by shooting death of rival gang member Donovan Thomas Jr., known as 'Big Nut.' In a statement to The Associated Press, Willis spokesperson Jeff DiSantis said 'anti-gang efforts' have yielded 'over 400 convictions of gang members' since Willis became district attorney, including 19 people in this case. Those efforts were 'key' in making Fulton County 'safer, taking dangerous offenders off the streets and sending a message that gang activity will not be tolerated in our community,' he said. Willis prosecuted the case using Georgia's broad anti-racketeering law. Critics say using that law caused a messy trial by roping in dozens of people with varying levels of alleged culpability. The anti-racketeering law allows prosecutors to present evidence that might otherwise not be allowed, which some defense attorneys say lets prosecutors present irrelevant material to the jury. It also often leads to people being held in jail longer for multiple reasons. 'It made everything so much more complicated and cumbersome,' said Max Schardt, defense attorney for defendant Shannon Stillwell. No 'home run' Stillwell was among five codefendants who stood trial alongside Young Thug beginning in November 2023. After Young Thug and the others entered guilty pleas, Stillwell and Kendrick were the only ones who took their chances with a jury. They were found not guilty of racketeering, murder and gang-related charges in December. Stillwell was found guilty only of gun possession. The verdict came nearly two years after jury selection began. Nine other defendants, including the rapper Gunna, accepted plea deals before the trial began. Prosecutors dropped charges against one defendant after he was convicted of murder in an unrelated case. Twelve defendants were split from the original trial, and charges against six of them were dismissed in early December. Another recently got a murder charge dismissed after entering an Alford plea, which allows him to maintain his innocence while acknowledging that it is in his best interest to plead guilty. McMullen, who was also charged with murder in Thomas' killing, entered an Alford plea to a lesser aggravated assault charge and another count of violating the anti-racketeering law. A judge in this case sentenced him to 40 years, with 20 to be served in confinement at the same time as the sentence he's already serving, and 20 suspended for time served. That leaves one remaining defendant who is accused of shooting and wounding an Atlanta police officer in February 2022 while on probation. His fate is expected to be determined soon. Atlanta defense attorney Andrew Fleischman, who was not involved in the case, said Willis could have secured guilty pleas years ago without a long, expensive trial if she hadn't used the anti-racketeering law. 'She went for a home run, and she didn't get it,' said Fleischman. ___ Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Kramon on X: @charlottekramon.
