A judge denied Gunna’s release on bond from a Fulton County jail Thursday, after his attorneys filed a third bond motion for the Atlanta artist (born Sergio Kitchens) last month. (Read More Here).
“Although we must respect the Court’s ruling, we know it is wrong,” attorney Steve Sadow says in a statement to Rolling Stone. “Gunna is innocent of the charge against him and should not be in jail pending trial.”
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville had already twice denied Kitchens’ bond motions, expressing concerns that he would intimidate witnesses. He’s been in jail since May.
Kitchens’ lawyers originally claimed that “the ‘ongoing investigation’ has failed to verify a single instance in which one single person has actually made an accusation that Kitchens has threatened anybody (directly or indirectly).”
The rapper’s lawyers contended that “the DA has pruned the indictment in the superseding indictment to remove virtually any reference to Kitchens’ involvement in any violence-related offense.”
The late September filing also stated that Kitchens “has been dropped from overt act 75” of the YSL indictment, which refers to a May 2018 traffic stop in which he and Young Thug (given name Jeffery Williams) were stopped for speeding. Police also stopped the vehicle behind the two, which contained four of their alleged associates armed with numerous weapons, including an AK-47.
Kitchens was arrested in May and charged with a single count of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO Act. Prosecutors allege that Young Thug’s Young Stoner Life record label is also a gang called Young Slime Life, which Thug and Gunna have been leading.
Gunna and fellow musician Young Thug were among 28 people charged this year in a sweeping Fulton County gang indictment. Prosecutors accuse the pair of being the leaders of a criminal street gang responsible for much of Atlanta’s crime. Attorneys for the two rappers strongly contest the charges, arguing in hearings and court filings that YSL is simply a record label, not a violent gang.
District Attorney Fani Willis has also defended her decision to use lyrics as evidence in the sprawling indictment, saying “If you decide to admit your crimes over a beat, I’m going to use it.”
Last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsome signed a bill into law restricting the use of rap lyrics as evidence in court proceedings.
U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson introduced similar legislation at the federal level. He recently partnered with U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a fellow Democrat representing New York’s 16th district, to write a bill limiting an artists’ lyrics or expressions from being used against them in federal cases.
“We have evidence that there are members of this organization who have conveyed their willingness to ‘whack’ or kill a person for the defendant,” Love said at Kitchens’ bond hearing.
She refused to publicly name the person who allegedly made the offer.
Kitchens’ attorneys asked for proof and suggested the judge might be too reliant on the word of prosecutors when considering bond.
“Once again, it’s vague information, all by virtue of proffer,” Samuel told Glanville. “This is what has happened now in three different hearings … At some point we’re asking you to demand of the prosecution, ‘what is the evidence to hold this man in jail without bond?’”
Defense attorney Steve Sadow said Kitchens doesn’t pose a risk and argued there’s no reason to keep him locked up until next year’s trial.
Glanville ultimately sided with state and denied bond for Kitchens, just as he has for every other defendant charged in the case. His decision elicited a chorus of groans from about a dozen of the musician’s supporters as they stood up to leave.
“If you remain in this courtroom and make any outbursts I’ll have you arrested,” the judge warned them from the bench.
Several defendants have asked to have their cases severed, but Willis wrote in a recent motion that she believes everyone should be tried together.
“Because all 25 defendants currently in custody were alleged to have participated in the same conspiracy, that is: the YSL criminal street gang, they should be tried together,” the DA wrote.
Additional motions hearings are scheduled for next month, and Glanville is expected to decide whether to postpone the trial until March. It is currently set to begin Jan. 9.
