Young Thug trial: Co-defendant turned witness sentenced to prison over false testimony

A witness in Young Thug’s lengthy gang case was sentenced to five years in prison Friday after the judge determined he was dishonest during his testimony last month.

Antonio Sledge, also known as Mounk Tounk, was charged in May 2022 along with the Atlanta rapper and 26 others. But he avoided trial in December 2022 by pleading guilty to conspiring to violate Georgia’s RICO act and possession of a firearm by a felon.

He was sentenced to 30 years’ probation and required to testify as part of the plea deal. But prosecutors said the 43-year-old violated that agreement during his four days on the stand by refusing to acknowledge certain things he previously admitted to.

Among them was that Sledge knew rival gang member Donovan Thomas Jr. had been killed by one or more “Young Slime Life” associates in January 2015. The 26-year-old was shot to death during a drive-by outside an Atlanta barbershop, leading to what investigators describe as a yearslong “gang war” between the two factions.

During his testimony, Sledge said he had tried to change certain portions of his plea agreement but that he ultimately felt “forced” to sign it. His mother was dying, he told jurors, and he couldn’t be with her or his children because he was stuck in jail.

“I wanted to go home to my sick mother,” Sledge said on the stand, describing the conditions inside the Fulton County Jail as dangerous and filthy.

Credit: Miguel Martinez

Friday’s sentencing marks the second time a defendant who accepted a plea deal in the sprawling racketeering case has had their probation revoked. Young Thug’s brother, Quantavious Grier, was sentenced to more than nine years in prison in June 2023 after authorities found a gun in his car outside an Atlanta gas station.

Sledge’s attorney, Derek Wright, argued that his client was “overwhelmed” by the questions he was asked on the stand and never meant to be intentionally misleading.

“You saw a very raw witness recounting things that happened a long time ago,” Wright said.

He asked Judge Paige Reese Whitaker to keep his client out of prison, telling her that Sledge recently became a grandfather and that he has another grandchild on the way.

“He has been complying with his probation.” Wright said. “He’s been working, he’s been taking care of his family, staying out of trouble. He’s turned that corner.”

Whitaker said she appreciated that Sledge was trying to stay out of trouble, but that he knew what he was getting into when he signed the plea agreement two years ago .

“There is just not a proper regard for the judicial system and the seriousness with which an oath in court needs to be taken,” Whitaker said.

Credit: Seeger Gray / AJC

She added that Sledge’s testimony, in her view, was “akin to perjury,” and had him led from the courtroom in handcuffs as some of his family members wept on a wooden pew.

Prosecutors say Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, is the leader of Young Slime Life, which they contend is an Atlanta-based gang responsible for a spate of robberies, shootings and at least three murders. The high-profile trial is the longest in Georgia history.

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