After spending half of 2022 in an Atlanta jail and trying to make bond multiple times, Gunna is finally coming home.
On Wednesday, the DS4Ever rapper pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy charge that indicted many members of Young Stoner Life (YSL), most notably him and Young Thug.
According to WSB-TV, the plea deal that was negotiated between Gunna’s attorneys and prosecutors is an Alford plea, which allows the Atlanta rapper to plead guilty on one charge because it’s in his best interest while maintaining his innocence on the same charge.
The “pushin P” rapper was sentenced to five years with one served in prison. That one-year sentence was reduced to time served. The other four years remaining on his sentence have been suspended and he will serve 500 hours of community service as well as adhere to other special conditions.
After accepting the plea, Gunna said in a statement sent to Complex:
“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 wrote in a statement provided to Complex. “My focus of YSL was entertainment – rap artists who wrote and performed music that exaggerated and ‘glorified’ urban life in the Black community. While I have agreed to always be truthful, 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.”
He continued, “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. 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. 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.”
Despite things looking up for Gunna, things for his fellow YSL member Young Thug, who’s still in jail awaiting his January 2023 trial date, have only gotten worse.
On Tuesday, a grand jury charged the So Much Fun rapper with four more counts including street racing, reckless driving, speeding and more. According to Fox 5 Atlanta, the charges come from an incident in May 2021 in which Thug was accused of driving more than 120 miles per hour on an Atlanta highway without wearing his seatbelt.