Young Thug‘s long-running YSL racketeering trial now has one fewer defendant than before, as Quamarvious Nichols has taken a plea deal.
Nichols, who was at the center of a dramatic courtroom moment last week that moved the case closer to a potential mistrial, accepted the deal on Tuesday (October 29), per Atlanta’s WSB.
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The terms of the deal were that the state would drop all but one of the charges he was facing, which included murder, two counts of participation in criminal street gang activity, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
In exchange, Nichols pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. He was sentenced to 20 years, seven of which he will have to spend behind bars, with the rest of the time being probation. He will be given credit for time served, which means that around two of those seven years are already behind him.
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Five defendants, including Thug, remain in the trial.
Nichols’ name came up in court on Wednesday (October 23).
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The issue began when a state witness, Wunnie Lee, was shown a social media post while on the witness stand, as an exhibit for him to help present to the jury. The original post contained the hashtag #FreeQua, referring, according to reports, to a jail sentence for one of Thug’s codefendants, Marquavius Huey.
However, the version of the post that was being shown to the jury had the hashtag redacted, because the jury is not allowed to believe that either Huey or a different “Qua” who was also a defendant — Nichols — have been incarcerated.
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Wunnie was asked to read the IG post, and — reading from a version provided to him, not the one being shown to the jury — he read out loud the “Free Qua” hashtag.
That led to Nichols’ attorney Nicole Westmoreland asking for a mistrial.
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“We’re not going to be able to unring this bell, your honor,” she said. “The state presented to the witness, I guess, the unredacted version [of the exhibit], didn’t prep him to not comment on it, and he did.”
Westmoreland noted that a similar thing had happened before Judge Whitaker came on board the case.
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“Now the jury has repeatedly heard about Mr. Nichols being in jail, being in prison. And you cannot unring that bell. We would ask for a mistrial.”
She went on: “It is painfully obvious that the state is not prepping their witnesses.”
Judge Whitaker criticized prosecutors for the slip-up.
“You should have presented [the witness] with a document that had that part [the hashtag] redacted,” she said. “It’s just sloppy… It should have occurred to you.”
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After that long discussion, Judge Whitaker asked the defendants if they wanted to request a mistrial without prejudice. After a short sidebar, court was adjourned for the day without the defense teams providing an answer.
