Gunna Released From Prison After Pleading Guilty to RICO Charge
Gunna is now out of prison.
The 29-year-old Drip Harder rapper was released from a Georgia prison on Wednesday (December 14) upon pleading guilty to one charge of conspiring to violate the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, ABC News reports.
“I have chosen to end my own RICO case with an Alford plea and end my personal ordeal by publicly acknowledging my association with YSL,” he said in a statement to the outlet, via lawyer Steve Sadow.
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Gunna has been denied bond three times since his arrest in May. He was one of 28 individuals named in a grand jury indictment that led to the arrest of Young Thug as well.
According to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, the individuals named in the indictment are allegedly associated with the Young Slime Life (YSL) gang. The prosecutors claim Young Thug founded it in 2012.
“An Alford plea in my case is the entry of a guilty plea to the one charge against me, which is in my best interest, while at the same time maintaining my innocence toward the same charge.”
An Alford plea is a negotiated agreement in which a defendant maintains their innocence but acknowledges that the prosecution’s evidence would likely lead to a guilty verdict, according to ABC.
The indictment alleges that among the objectives of the alleged RICO conspiracy was “preserving, protecting and enhancing the reputation, power and territory of the enterprise through acts of racketeering activity including murder, assault and threats of violence.”
Gunna also claims he was not interviewed and did not cooperate with prosecutors in this case, which includes 27 other individuals, including Young Thug, who is facing eight charges as a part of the same RICO indictment.
“I want to make it perfectly clear that I have NOT made any statements, have NOT been interviewed, have NOT cooperated, have NOT agreed to testify or be a witness for or against any party in the case and have absolutely NO intention of being involved in the trial process in any way,” Gunna said in the written statement.
He was initially sentenced to five years with one year served, according to Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB. A judge commuted the one-year sentence to time served and suspended the four-year remaining balance subject to conditions, including 500 hours of community service, via the news outlet.
“When I became affiliated with YSL in 2016, I did not consider it a ‘gang’; more like a group of people from metro Atlanta who had common interests and artistic aspirations,” Gunna said in the statement on Wednesday.
“My focus of YSL was entertainment — rap artists who wrote and performed music that exaggerated and ‘glorified’ urban life in the Black community,” he continued.
“I love and cherish my association with YSL music, and always will. I look at this as an opportunity to give back to my community and educate young men and women that ‘gangs’ and violence only lead to destruction.”
His trial was set for January 2023 before pleading guilty, and his attorney previously told ABC News that “the indictment falsely portrays [Gunna's] music as part of criminal conspiracy.”
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