Rapper Young Thug remains in Cobb County jail and can’t be happy to learn his trial has been delayed while the Fulton County District Attorney’s office spent at least a month staking out a potential juror.
The unidentified potential jury member, referred to in court documents as “Juror B,” claims Fulton County—where the case will be tried—as his permanent residence, making him eligible to serve. Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffrey Lamar Williams, has been in jail since May 2022 and is facing up to 40 years. He and 27 others have been charged with 56 violations of Georgia’s Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
Jury selection began in January and has lasted more than nine months. Prosecutors tracked Juror B’s movements between Aug. 11 and Oct. 3 and claimed that he had spent 28 of 30 nights at his apartment in Austell, Cobb County. Using license plate readers and other technology, prosecutors assert that at no time between those dates did he show up at his mother’s Fulton County residence, which he claimed as his permanent residence because he lived there for 25 years and helped her with the bills.
While the prosecution’s activity raises questions about whether such surveillance is ethical, the multiple-residences question has been a source of contention because Judge Oral Glanville sided with the defense over the prosecution’s objections. Prosecutors may want Juror B removed because he confessed to enjoying Young Thug’s music, and though the juror assured the judge that he could remain impartial, clearly they doubt him.
