ATLANTA — The same day rising young Atlanta rapper Yung Bans was moving past a murder charge stemming from a 2015 robbery that had kept him under house arrest for nearly four years, an Atlanta detective was linking him to a new robbery that occurred just last month.
Yung Bans, whose legal name is Vas Coleman, was celebratory on social media after the murder charge was dropped in a plea deal on Monday. He posted a video to his Instagram account, which has since made private, where he showed off his new freedom from ankle monitors and thanked his friends and fans.
He was originally charged in the December 2015 death of 51-year-old Jose Greer, who jumped from his third-story balcony as three men tried to break into his apartment.
Yung Bans was accused of waiting in a getaway car with his friend Maxx Pritchett while the other three ransacked the apartment after Greer’s leap. Greer later died of his injuries from the fall.
A copy of the plea agreement obtained by 11Alive shows the murder charge was dropped as Yung Bans pleaded guilty to first degree burglary, accepting eight years of probation in the negotiated plea.
He was also sentenced to two years in prison, but was given credit for the time already served under house arrest, making him a free man.
“I just got off house arrest today and beat my case after 4 years,” he wrote on Twitter. “I think it’s time to set up a tour where y’all want me to come?”
At roughly the same time, Atlanta Police detective Carlos Maldonado laid out in a Fulton County courtroom how the rapper may have played a role in a November robbery that has gained attention because of the alleged involvement of two Life University women’s lacrosse players.
That armed home invasion targeted seven people at a party and left one man pistol-whipped unconscious, lying with a fractured skull in a pool of his own blood.
At the preliminary hearing for the women, 19-year-old Lydnsey Kallish and 20-year-old Lauren Rielly, Maldonado testified that they were at Yung Bans’ Midtown Atlanta apartment when they got a Snapchat invitation to the party they’re charged with eventually aiding two men – including Pritchett – in robbing.
Pritchett faces 20 charges in the case. He also last year took the same deal Yung Bans took Monday in the 2015 case, putting him on probation.
Yung Bans has not been charged in the November robbery case.
In his testimony, Det. Maldonado indicated that the two women believed they were going to be paid by him for driving Pritchett and the other suspect, who is still at large, to the party and staking it out before the men went in.
He outlined a series of text messages between Rielly and Yung Bans the night of the robbery.
Prosecutor: What is the communication between that number (Yung Bans’) and Ms. Rielly during the course of this armed robbery.
Maldonado: Sure, the first message that appears in this screen occurs just before midnight, which would be November the 7th.
Prosecutor: To Bans.
Maldonado: That’s correct.
Prosecutor: And what is the next part of that conversation?
Maldonado: Sure ,the next part of the conversation, there's a gap, it's not until after the robbery would have occurred, in which the phone number from Bans is saying, “What are you doing?” And this is roughly around 2:36 a.m. … and it says, “We just pulled up.” And then there’s a message back from the number associated with Mr. Bans which says, “Spot.” And then it fast forwards later in the day to about 2:41 p.m., in which there’s a text message saying, “So can we get the money?” from Ms. Rielly to the number associated with Mr. Bans. There's no response. And then two-three hours later there's another text message from Ms. Rielly to Bans which is a question mark.
Maldonado also said there were “text message conversations between Ms. Rielly and Ms. Kallish where there’s reminders to, ‘Hey make sure that we ask Bans about the money.’”
According to a Fulton County District Attorney’s Office spokesman, the robbery is still under investigation.
A message to an email for a representative listed in Yung Bans' Twitter bio was not answered.
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