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Young Thug RICO trial witness Lil Woody tells prosecutor he's a 'grown' man, refuses to testify despite immunity, is immediately held in contempt

Matt NahamJun 7th, 2024, 2:27 pm
 
Kenneth Copeland, aka Lil Woody

Kenneth Copeland, aka Lil Woody, being sworn in just before he refused to testify in court on June 7, 2024 (Law&Crime Newtork)

After it seemed that a witness in the Young Thug RICO trial with "use immunity" was reluctantly going to answer questions in court, since that testimony could not be used against him, he suddenly reversed course, told a prosecutor that he was a "grown" adult man, pleaded the Fifth, and was immediately held in contempt by the judge, who ordered his arrest.

Lil Woody, whose real name is Kenneth Copeland, showed up to court on Friday intent on invoking his Fifth Amendment right not to testify, even though he was aware of the "use immunity" grant.

Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville began by asking Lil Woody if he was aware of his "use immunity" and the witness affirmed that on the record.

"I just want to make sure that you understand," Glanville said, spelling out the witness' situation. "If you don't testify, then I as the judge in this case have several remedies. One of those is that I can hold you in contempt and jail you because the way that you get out of that contempt is to just testify."

The judge explained that the immunity given to him by Fulton County DA Fani Willis' office overrode Lil Woody's Fifth Amendment privilege and "required" his testimony.

"If you don't testify, the state's probably going to ask me to jail you and I'm probably going to do that," the judge warned.

The witness nonetheless said "I'm taking the Fifth."

More Law&Crime coverage: Witness for the prosecution in Young Thug RICO case says he might fall asleep because he's 'so high right now'

After some additional explanation from the judge, Glanville asked again: "Are you going to testify?"

"Yeah," the witness answered, but testifying is not what happened.

After a break, the witness was called back to the stand and was sworn in. He confirmed his name and spelled it, then a member of the prosecution team asked in straightforward fashion: "Do you want to be here?"

"I'm here," he said.

"How old are you?" the prosecutor asked.

"Grown," the witness answered.

"Okay, what does grown mean?" the state replied.

"I'm an adult," Lil Woody said.

"And when you say you're an adult what number in years are you?" the prosecution asked.

That question was a bridge too far for the witness, who promptly said, "I plead the Fifth."

Glanville immediately responded by sending the jury out of the courtroom, holding the witness in contempt, and ordering his arrest.

"This court holds you in willful contempt and we'll see you on Monday, and we'll see if we can get some more testimony at that point in time," the judge said. "Take him into custody."

Brian Steel, an attorney for Jeffery Williams, better known as hip-hop star Young Thug, separately went off on the state on Friday and railed against the "false allegation machine" against him. Things got heated enough that the judge had to tell both the prosecution and the defense to calm down.

And after the Lil Woody incident in front of the jury, Steele moved for a mistrial, claiming that it was known that the witness would plead the Fifth. The judge pointed out that Lil Woody invoked the Fifth Amendment after saying he would testify, so the mistrial motion was swiftly denied.

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Matt Naham

Matt Naham is a contributing writer for Law&Crime.

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