FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — On Tuesday, Kenneth Copeland — who goes by Lil Woody — finally finished testifying in the YSL RICO trial.
"You testified that YSL is not a gang?" Assistant District Attorney Simone Hylton asked him.
"And it still ain't a gang," Woody replied.
Prosecutors hoped Woody would help build their case against the rapper Young Thug and several co-defendants. They allege YSL is a gang — not a record label — responsible for several violent crimes.
Instead, his testimony brought months of questions and controversy that dramatically changed the course of the trial.
Woody says 'I don't recall'
Considered a key witness before the trial, Woody has largely declined to answer questions from prosecutors, often telling them he doesn't recall events he was allegedly involved in, statements he made, or even things that have happened in court.
It's become his calling card, so much so that he actually released a song called "I Don't Recall," which is detailed lower in this story.
Woody first took the stand on June 7, where he refused to answer questions about his age.
"How old are you?" Hylton asked him.
"I'm grown," Woody replied.
"Okay. What does grown mean?" Hylton asked.
"I'm an adult," Woody said.
"When you say you're an adult, what number in years are you?" Hylton asked again.
"I plead the Fifth," Woody answered.
Judge Ural Glanville, who presided over the trial at the time, found Woody in contempt of court. He spent the weekend in the Fulton County Jail.
In an effort to clear up questions about Woody's immunity deal, state prosecutors called an ex-parte meeting with Woody, his fill-in attorney and the judge.
The defense team raised concerns about not being included in that meeting. Young Thug's attorney, Brian Steel, was held in contempt of court and sentenced to 20 days in jail for asking about the ex-parte meeting and refusing to tell Glanville who told him about its existence.
They motioned for the recusal of Glanville — and a mistrial, which Glanville denied. Judge Rachel Krause determined Judge Glanville probably should not have ruled on those motions himself and ordered him off the case.
The case was assigned to Judge Shukura Ingram, who recused herself. Judge Paige Whitaker then took control.
On August 12, jurors finally returned to the courtroom after a nearly two-month break.
On August 13, Woody learned his attorney was suspended — for reasons unrelated to YSL — prompting another afternoon of delays while an attorney was set up for him.
During his testimony, Woody released a new song called "I Don't Recall."
He directly referenced his recent testimony in the high-profile YSL RICO trial, where, for the past week, he's repeatedly used the phrase "I don't recall" in response to many of the prosecution's questions.
"Ion know them n*****, I just be spending; I don't recall. Don't be asking me about no co-defendants, I don't recall," Lil Woody raps in his new release. "On the stand, still cooking. DA mad, jury looking. Took the Fifth, made 'em book me."
During his testimony, he said he constantly lied to the police in order to protect himself and his family and that jurors shouldn't believe any of his previous statements. He also told the court he blamed rapper Young Thug for crimes he said he didn't commit.
"The police kept locking me up for whatever they could," he stated. "And they keep bringing up Thug name, so what I did to get them off me was 'Thug did this, Thug did that.'"
Lil Woody, who cannot be prosecuted for anything he says on the stand, told prosecutors that he didn't recall the answers to their questions dozens of times and begged them to leave him alone.
"The police told me they want a big fish. And I'm a little fish," he said. "When they told me that, my only motive was to convince them that I was telling them the truth about this guy in my mind."