ATLANTA — Six defendants in the YSL gang indictment will not go to trial, with a Fulton County judge ruling Thursday the trial would move ahead without them because they either do not have lawyers or still have not been arrested.
Jury selection in the trial, which includes rapper Young Thug, is scheduled to begin next week. Judge Ural Glanville has been moving to wrap up pretrial proceedings throughout this week.
The trial itself is still slated to begin Jan. 9.
On Thursday, Glanville said four defendants in the indictment - Javaris Bradford aka Tuda, Jevon Fleetwood aka 4Tray/Psycho, Damekion Garlington aka Dee/Sxarfaxe and Demise McMullen aka DK - would be severed from the case because they have not yet been able to obtain legal representation.
Two additional defendants - Justin Cobb aka Duwap and Jimmy Winfrey aka Roscoe - were severed because they haven't been arrested.
An eighth defendant, Trontavious Stephens, accepted a guilty plea deal Thursday and will serve eight years probation as part of that deal.
With eight defendants already taking plea deals, including another popular rapper, Gunna, and Young Thug's brother Quantavious Grier, that means of the original 28 individuals named in the indictment, at most 14 will be on trial together.
There were two other plea deal offers on the table for on Thursday afternoon, for Derontae Bebee and Tenquarius Mender, but they did not appear to take them.
Antonio Sledge aka Mounk Tounk became the seventh defendant to take a plea deal on Wednesday, pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate RICO and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Sledge was given a 15-year probation sentence as part of his plea deal.