The final defendant pleaded guilty in the yearslong gang prosecutioncentered on Atlanta rapper Young Thug, closing out a case that started with tough talk by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and ended, as one victim’s mother said, “a long way from justice.”
It’s been more than three years since Willis stood in front of television cameras and said she would use Georgia’s powerful Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act to go after the alleged Young Slime Life gang, which she said was behind a slew of shootings and homicides that wreaked havoc across Atlanta for a decade.
Where are they now? A look at the key players from Young Thug gang case
On Monday, Christian Eppinger, one of 28 people charged in the sprawling racketeering case, pleaded guilty to attempted murder in the 2022 shooting of an Atlanta police officer. Footage of Eppinger shooting Officer David Rodgers six times was played in court as Rodgers looked on, along with about three dozen other APD officers who attended the hearing.
Eppinger, 25, also pleaded guilty to a host of other counts, including armed robbery, theft by taking, gun charges and conspiring to violate the state’s RICO Act. He was sentenced to 75 years, to serve 40, but that runs concurrent with 45 years he’s already serving.
Eppinger’s plea caps off a saga that legal observers have called an “embarrassment,” a “circus” and a loss for everyone involved. Willis did not get a single murder conviction out of the prosecution, and the only two defendants to make it all the way through a jury trial were acquitted of the harshest charges they faced…