Define "Snitch"
As the YSL trial resumes, a former member testifies for the state.
Witnesses who have testified: 34 (of roughly 400 witness for the state)
My assessment
As the AJC’s Shaddi Abusaid points out, the YSL trial – the longest trial in Georgia history – officially started one year ago this week.
This week’s most noteworthy witness, Trontavious Stephens, didn’t offer a ton to the state’s case. While he did admit that YSL is a gang (he agreed to do so on the stand when he accepted a plea deal last year), his definition dodged a lot of the state’s assertions. Notably, Stephens asserted that YSL is a record label, but that he understands it’s considered a gang because he was a member who committed crimes while a part of the group. “I committed crimes while being a part of YSL,” he said. “By me committing crimes while being a part of YSL, that was basis to say that YSL was a gang.”
Witness Testimonies
Dwight Hutchins
Relevancy: Hutchins’ testimony is related to the testimony we heard prior to the holiday break about the incident at Perimeter Mall. ICYMI: Roswell Police Department officer Christopher May was a security guard at Perimeter Mall when he said Young Thug threatened to shoot him in the face. (Read more here.)
Hutchins was a security guard at the mall in 2015 when he encountered Young Thug and others. He said he asked them to step off their hoverboards, per mall policy. When they refused to do so, he contacted his supervisor, May, to handle the situation.
Hutchins was a short and difficult witness for the state due to the fact that he’d suffered a stroke in 2020 and continues to have memory issues as a result. Notably, when shown his signature on a typed statement about the incident, Hutchins insisted that it wasn’t his signature. “It looks like mine but it’s not mine,” he said. “I don’t remember writing this statement at all. There’s some things wrong with it.”
Sean Lenahan, a sergeant with the Dunwoody Police Department, testified later in the day that he was the one who took Hutchins’ statement following the incident. Lenahan said he had no reason to believe that the words in Hutchins’ statement were fabricated or written by someone else.
Curtis Cogdell
Relevancy: The Atlanta Police Department officer spotted Shannon Stillwell not wearing his seatbelt and attempted to pull him over. Instead, he said Stillwell continued to drive away and eventually struck another vehicle before fleeing on foot. (The vehicle subsequently drove off and the driver never reported the incident.) Cogdell discovered a gun in the car that was driven by Stillwell, who was a convicted felon.
On cross, Cogdell admitted that it is against APD policy to chase someone over a suspected seatbelt violation, but stated that by the time he was preparing to call it off the car accident had occurred.
Trontavious Stephens aka Tick/Slug
Relevancy: Stephens accepted a plea deal to one count of conspiracy to violate RICO in this case last year, during which he admitted that YSL is a gang that he co-founded.
30-year-old Stephens said he joined the ROC Crew gang alongside his brothers when he was around 14 or 15 years old. He was introduced to the gang by it’s alleged leader Quinton Porter. (more testimony related to the gang here)
Stephens proved a slippery witness for prosecutor Love as she posed vague questions in ways that were easy for him to dodge. When she asked how the gang identified itself, for instance, he said: “You really didn’t have to because all of us was raised on Cleveland and that’s what it stood for.”
When asked if Porter was the gang’s leader, he said: “It really wasn’t no formal leader. It was older guys. Yes, he was one of the older guys,” he said. “No one gave me any orders."Stephens said his criminal record proved that he did commit crimes, although he states he didn’t commit them with other members of ROC Crew. Mostly, he said, he and the other members hung out at a local park, playing basketball and shooting dice. When asked if he ever discussed illegal activity with the other members of ROC Crew, he said: “Shooting dice wasn’t technically legal. We had conversations about the dice game after that was over with.”
He declined to implicate any of the defendants in the case as members of ROC Crew (a detective recently testified that several YSL members were previously a part of ROC) when asked. Instead, he said some of the people in the courtroom were technically affiliated with ROC Crew because of their friendship with him.
When asked about a tattoo on his neck with the letters “BFL,” he denied that it stood for “Blood for Life.” Instead, he said it stood for “Bank First and Last,” noting the money bag sign behind the “B.” When Love asked him why the “F” was in red ink, he said: “I wanted to add some color to it and red is the only color my body will take because of my dark skin.”Stephens admitted to being a co-founder of the YSL (alongside Young Thug and Walter Murphy), but was vague in what that meant. YSL, he insisted, has always been a music organization, although he never specified how he was involved in the company. “At the time we were going through a phase with the whole ROC Crew gang ordeal and decided that wasn’t the approach we wanted to take anymore. So ROC Crew was known for committing crimes and being a gang. We were trying to take a different approach. We had a passion for music.,” he said. “We said hey, we gone change the narrative and try to do something positive by creating a music organization.”
Lil Wayne was a significant subject during this week’s testimony from Stephens. For one, Stephens reiterated that he and others in YSL got the term “slime” from their musical idol Lil Wayne (which Thug’s attorney also stated during opening arguments).
Stephens said he was present on the night that Lil Wayne’s bus was shot at, but didn’t have many details to offer. He said he’d gone to Compound for his birthday, and had been drinking and smoking (as well as driving) the whole night. He remembers riding to the club with Damekion Garlington and Shannon Stillwell (Jackson), but he doesn’t remember who rode home with him. The only thing he knows about the bus shooting, he said, was what he subsequently saw on the internet.While Stephens said he didn’t mind testifying, he did admit it was inconvenient for him. “I have a new career path that I’m trying to pursue. I’m trying to put all of this behind me,” he said.
Stephens testimony will resume next week but ended on an interesting not with Love asking him if he knew what the word “snitch” means. “It doesn’t mean anything to me but I’m aware of the term,” he said. “I really don’t fully understand the term.”