Rapper Gunna was released from an Atlanta jail after pleading guilty to a RICO racketeering and criminal gang charge.
Gunna’s name trended on Twitter when the news broke that he accepted a plea deal on Wednesday.
The 28-year-old rapper, whose real name is Sergio Kitchens, was arrested in May, along with fellow rapper Young Thug and 26 others. He was named in the indictment announced by the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in May.
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Willis accused the rappers of being members of the Young Slime Life (YSL) gang that committed murders and other violent crimes in Atlanta since 2012.
Gunna said in a statement he had “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 he didn’t snitch on Young Thug or anyone else to gain his freedom.
“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 his statement. “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. 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 continued:
“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.”
