A witness for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' office became hostile during his testimony in the YSL trial, telling prosecutors that he'd rather go back to prison than answer questions on the stand.
On Thursday, state witness D'Angelo White refused to look at the screen where prosecutors were showing a map and insisted, "You can't make me look at the screen. I just want to go back to prison. Give me my 10-year bid, go on."
"You disturbed me from when I was at prison doing my time," White continued from the stand. "Talking about something that happened 10 years ago that I don't know."
White, who is seven years into a 10-year prison sentence, is the alleged victim of a 2015 attempted murder by Walter "DK" Murphy, the alleged co-founder of the Young Slime Life (YSL) gang. Twenty-eight alleged members of YSL, including Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug, whose legal name is Jeffrey Williams, were indicted in a sweeping RICO case by Willis in May 2022.
The high-profile trial has been ongoing for more than a year, and on Wednesday, the judge overseeing the case said he would change the rules to help speed it up. He told jurors that if they didn't come during the weekends, "we'll be here until 2027, and that's not what I want for this jury."
Prosecutors have indicated they have about 150 witnesses to call.
White also testified on Tuesday, offering similar contentious remarks about not wanting to be a witness in the case. He repeatedly told prosecutors he was "not supposed to be" at the trial and should be finishing out his prison sentence instead.
Asked why he was refusing to answer questions, White said, "This don't have nothing to do with me. This is not my case. I'm already doing a 10-year bid and I'm doing two armed robberies and a hijacking. This has nothing to do with me."
"With all due respect man, I'm ready to go back to prison," he told prosecutors on Tuesday.
When he returned to the stand Wednesday, White denied telling prosecutors that he would be able to identify Murphy in a lineup, adding, "Why would I be telling you anything if this don't have nothing to do with me...I don't even know none of these guys in this courtroom."
Prosecutors continued to ask how he felt about the shooting of another man, but White pushed back, saying the man was not his friend and that "He could have died, he could have did whatever. It has nothing to do with me. My life, I'm still in good health. I didn't get shot."
Asked whether he'd still be bothered that the man was shot and killed regardless of how close they were, White responded, "You see a lot of people on the news get shot. You probably don't feel no type of way because you don't know them."
Murphy, one of the prosecution's star witnesses, also took the stand on Wednesday as a part of his plea deal. Murphy was asked about his relationship with Williams, his prior gang affiliations and how YSL was founded. He testified that he considered Williams, whom he had known since childhood, a friend until he went to prison, after which they did not maintain a relationship.
Murphy told prosecutors that prospective gang members did not need to commit a crime to join YSL, saying "If you want to be YSL, you can be YSL."
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Katherine Fung is a Newsweek reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and world politics. ... Read more
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