One of the co-defendants in the Young Thug and YSL RICO case has argued that the judge needs to limit the number of state witnesses at trial and avoid dragging out the legal proceedings.
Law and Crime Network reports that the legal team for Deamonte Kendrick, otherwise known as Yak Gotti, has cautioned that the case will be even further dragged out if the judge on the case fails to limit the number of witnesses state prosecutors plan to present at the trial. Attorneys for Kendrick, who is one of Thug's five remaining co-defendants in the case, asked Judge Ural Glanville on Tuesday, March 19, to use his discretion to maintain "reasonable control" over trial evidence.
"The state, after originally proposing a witness list of over 700 witnesses, has a list of over 400 witnesses it intends to present at trial. To date, the State has presented approximately 40 witnesses since presentation of witnesses began at the end of November," wrote defense attorneys E. Jay Abt, Douglas Weinstein, and Katie A. Hingerty in a motion filed this week. "At the present, representative rate, it will take until approximately October 2026 to complete the presentation of State’s witnesses. ... Thus, the present trial will take well into at least mid-2027 to complete."
State prosecutors are reportedly hoping to present another 360 witnesses into evidence in the trial, which attorneys have argued will confuse jurors and drag out proceedings. In the motion, they wrote that 360 additional witnesses "would cause undue delay, would be a waste of time, and would amount to needless presentation of cumulative evidence. ... While the State puts on its case, witness by witness, Kendrick and the other Defendants sit in jail. Their lives on hold. ... Meanwhile, the risk of a confused jury unable to comprehend a years-long trial only grows."
The motion also asks state prosecutors to explain why the remaining 360 witnesses won't be "a waste of time" and delay the trial even further.
Last week, Judge Glanville reprimanded the prosecution and defense after they got into a heated debate in court over witness testimony. Fulton County Deputy District Attorney Adriane Love and Doug Weinstein raised their voices. Kendrick was at the center of the debate because Glanville granted a motion to suppress his interrogation statements as evidence.
“We were ready to present evidence…the court is not allowing us to present the evidence,” Love said in court. “We have the burden of proof and we haven’t even been able to present the evidence that we have. We only—for the sake of ease—allowed the court to introduce the statements that the defendant [Gotti] made…to help Mr. Weinstein play the portion that he wanted to talk about.”
