ATLANTA — The first step in what's expected to be a monthslong succession of witnesses and testimony was taken Wednesday in the trial against Young Thug and the alleged YSL street gang with an Atlanta Police gang unit detective taking the stand.
In his testimony during prosecution questioning throughout most of Wednesday, Atlanta Police Detective Mark Belknap spoke of his expertise in investigating gangs, reviewed common gang characteristics and markers, outlined some of the recent history of Atlanta gang activity and then traced the origins of the alleged Young Slime Life gang in Cleveland Avenue.
Prosecutors have alleged the gang evolved out of an earlier group, Raised on Cleveland - or Roc Crew - and came to be known as Young Slime Life and led by "King Slime" - Young Thug.
Attorneys for the rapper, whose legal name is Jeffery Williams, had not yet had a chance to question Detective Belknap themselves as of late Wednesday afternoon. They have stringently denied he has any association with organized crime and, in opening statements, cast the case as the product of biased police and an overly aggressive district attorney's office.
"Jeffery has been targeted," defense attorney Brian Steel said Tuesday during his opening statement.
Detective Belknap, in his testimony, told jurors that Roc Crew had been formed as early as 2006 or 2007 and was a subset of the larger national Bloods gang.
By 2012 and 2013, he said, "We saw a change... away from using the name 'Roc Crew' and we started seeing other things pop in that area" - Cleveland Avenue. This came as Roc Crew members had drawn more and more heat from law enforcement, he said.
Belknap added around that same time, calls increasingly came from schools, parents and the community where "they were reporting that the activity was related to a group called 'Slime Gang.'"
APD began investigating those reports, which included alleged drug trafficking, armed robberies, shootings and murders.
"We began to discover activity by a group calling themselves Young Slime Life," Belknap said.
One line of questioning cut to a core contention that defense attorneys will make - whether an organized YSL gang exists at all. And, if it doesn't, whether the trial effectively amounts to a prosecution of Young Thug's artistic expression.
"Are you familiar with the record label Young Stoner Life?" lead prosecutor Adriane Love asked Belknap. He said he was.
"And is that the same entity that you are referring to, Young Slime Life?" Love went on.
"No it's not," Belknap responded.
"Would you tell the jury the distinction, please," Love asked.
Noting that Young Stoner Life is, in fact, a registered Georgia music publishing company, Belknap made clear that for him, in his line of work, YSL is a gang.
"When I refer to YSL, I am referring to Young Slime Life, the gang we investigated for these activities we discussed," he said.
Court was in recess just before 4 p.m., with more testimony expected from Detective Belknap. It was not clear how much longer the prosecution would continue with the detective before defense attorneys had a chance to ask him questions.