ATLANTA — It's been eight months and still no jury has been seated in the Fulton County RICO trial that ropes in Atlanta rapper Young Thug.
On Tuesday, prosecutors announced that they would be dropping charges against a defendant in the Young Slime Life gang trial. This move now leaves seven defendants left in the case.
“The state got up and made an announcement, and to my surprise, the announcement was that my client, Mr. Cordarius Dorsey, saying they were dropping all the charges against him," defense attorney Suri Chadha Jimenez said.
In a four-page motion, prosecutors claim it's in part due to Dorsey's most recent murder conviction in a separate case that was handed down last week.
Jimenez said this is the second murder conviction his client has received and the states' reasoning for dropping the charges seems suspect.
“I think they’re just trying to save face," Jimenez said. "I think they realized that whatever their goal was of sitting Mr. Dorsey next to the celebrity, they released it’s just not going to be accomplished."
It was just days ago that Young Thug's legal team filed a motion asking for Dorsey to be dropped from the trial after behaving in an "unprofessional" manner during court.
“He was frustrated. He’s been frustrated from the beginning," explained Jimenez.
Dorsey's removal from the case could speed things up. However, Jimenez and other defense attorneys have accused the prosecution of delaying the trial by only releasing bits and pieces of discovery.
“Some of this stuff I found in that discovery dump went back to 2015 and it was labeled ‘do not serve yet.’ That is improper and wrong and that is in bad faith, and I filed a motion saying that was in bad faith to my client and every other client," said Jimenez.
He added that the state's witness list has also nearly doubled since January.
Young Thug's attorney, Brian Steel wrote an emergency motion asking the judge to intervene saying the addition of new witnesses was hurting his ability to defend his client.
Steel said he and other defense attorneys are meeting with prosecutors Friday to review the discovery and witness lists.