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Grammy-winning Atlanta rap star “Lil Wayne” is named in the case of a Bloods street gang shooting to be argued Monday before the Georgia Supreme Court.
A gangster aligned with a rival rapper is appealing convictions for violating Georgia’s street gang law by firing 15 bullets into Lil Wayne’s tour bus on Interstate 75 in April 2015.
The shooting was spawned by a rivalry between Dwayne Michael “Lil Wayne” Carter Jr. and rapper Bryan “Birdman” Williams, said authorities who allege both performers are affiliated with the Bloods.
“For some time, the two rappers and their followers had been hurling insults and threats at each other,” says a synopsis of the Supreme Court case. “Jimmy Carlton Winfrey was affiliated with Williams, and in April 2015 Winfrey pursed Carter and his group who were traveling in tour buses headed north on I-75 from Atlanta.”
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Before the buses departed, Winfrey threatened Carter, prompting Atlanta police to intervene and escort the buses out of the city.
When the police escort peeled off, a white Camaro came speeding up as someone in the car fired into the buses in which Carter and 11 others were riding. No one was injured.
A Cobb County grand jury in July 2015 indicted Winfrey on 27 counts, including aggravated assault and racketeering, offenses for which Winfrey faced 460 years in prison, if convicted.
During a pretrial motions hearing, a prosecutor told the judge Winfrey had rejected two plea deals and would be offered no more. Winfrey’s attorney said his client didn’t want to plead guilty to violating Georgia’s Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act, lest that impede his chances of later being paroled.
“This opportunity is going away,” the judge told Winfrey. “Go to trial and you get convicted, there’s not going to be any of me being concerned about when you parole out… And if you want to look around and see what happens to people in gangs in Cobb County, Georgia, you can look at what happened last week to the guy who went to trial and got convicted.”
That defendant was sentenced to 100 years in prison with 50 to serve.
After further negotiations, Winfrey pleaded guilty to six counts of violating the gang act, and the prosecution agreed to drop the other charges. The judge sentenced Winfrey to 20 years with 10 to serve.
Winfrey appealed to the Georgia Court of Appeals, arguing the judge improperly joined in the negotiations, and Winfrey’s plea was involuntary.
The appeals court unanimously upheld Winfrey’s plea and sentence, but conceded the issue was “a close case.” The higher court decided the trial judge “never explicitly told Winfrey that he would be facing a longer sentence if he rejected the State’s offer and went to trial.”
Winfrey’s attorneys cite a Georgia Superior Court rule that says, “The trial judge should not participate in plea discussions,” and argue the judge broke that rule by talking Winfrey out of going to trial by emphasizing the “extreme sentence” imposed in another gang case.
The defense also cites the state Supreme Court’s 2017 decision in State v. Hayes, in which the justices wrote, “Judicial participation is prohibited as a constitutional matter when it is so great as to render a plea involuntary.”
Prosecutors also cite that precedent as “extraordinarily similar” to Winfrey’s case, and say it shows the judge’s comments were permissible.
“There, this court pointed out that telling a defendant that he could be sentenced to up to 20 years is not the same as telling a defendant that he would be sentenced to 20 years,” they write. “Under Hayes, a court’s actions are impermissible if it states that it ‘will’ or ‘is going to’ impose a particular sentence. In both Hayes and this matter, no such predictive language was used.”
Were the Supreme Court to side with Winfrey, it would reverse the Hayes decision it just rendered last year, says the prosecution, which argues also that Winfrey failed to establish the basis for an appeal by objecting to the judge’s remarks at the time.
Read more here: Georgia Supreme Court to hear Bloods gang case involving Lil Wayne | Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
A gangster aligned with a rival rapper is appealing convictions for violating Georgia’s street gang law by firing 15 bullets into Lil Wayne’s tour bus on Interstate 75 in April 2015.
The shooting was spawned by a rivalry between Dwayne Michael “Lil Wayne” Carter Jr. and rapper Bryan “Birdman” Williams, said authorities who allege both performers are affiliated with the Bloods.
“For some time, the two rappers and their followers had been hurling insults and threats at each other,” says a synopsis of the Supreme Court case. “Jimmy Carlton Winfrey was affiliated with Williams, and in April 2015 Winfrey pursed Carter and his group who were traveling in tour buses headed north on I-75 from Atlanta.”
Never miss a local story.
Before the buses departed, Winfrey threatened Carter, prompting Atlanta police to intervene and escort the buses out of the city.
When the police escort peeled off, a white Camaro came speeding up as someone in the car fired into the buses in which Carter and 11 others were riding. No one was injured.
A Cobb County grand jury in July 2015 indicted Winfrey on 27 counts, including aggravated assault and racketeering, offenses for which Winfrey faced 460 years in prison, if convicted.
During a pretrial motions hearing, a prosecutor told the judge Winfrey had rejected two plea deals and would be offered no more. Winfrey’s attorney said his client didn’t want to plead guilty to violating Georgia’s Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act, lest that impede his chances of later being paroled.
“This opportunity is going away,” the judge told Winfrey. “Go to trial and you get convicted, there’s not going to be any of me being concerned about when you parole out… And if you want to look around and see what happens to people in gangs in Cobb County, Georgia, you can look at what happened last week to the guy who went to trial and got convicted.”
That defendant was sentenced to 100 years in prison with 50 to serve.
After further negotiations, Winfrey pleaded guilty to six counts of violating the gang act, and the prosecution agreed to drop the other charges. The judge sentenced Winfrey to 20 years with 10 to serve.
Winfrey appealed to the Georgia Court of Appeals, arguing the judge improperly joined in the negotiations, and Winfrey’s plea was involuntary.
The appeals court unanimously upheld Winfrey’s plea and sentence, but conceded the issue was “a close case.” The higher court decided the trial judge “never explicitly told Winfrey that he would be facing a longer sentence if he rejected the State’s offer and went to trial.”
Winfrey’s attorneys cite a Georgia Superior Court rule that says, “The trial judge should not participate in plea discussions,” and argue the judge broke that rule by talking Winfrey out of going to trial by emphasizing the “extreme sentence” imposed in another gang case.
The defense also cites the state Supreme Court’s 2017 decision in State v. Hayes, in which the justices wrote, “Judicial participation is prohibited as a constitutional matter when it is so great as to render a plea involuntary.”
Prosecutors also cite that precedent as “extraordinarily similar” to Winfrey’s case, and say it shows the judge’s comments were permissible.
“There, this court pointed out that telling a defendant that he could be sentenced to up to 20 years is not the same as telling a defendant that he would be sentenced to 20 years,” they write. “Under Hayes, a court’s actions are impermissible if it states that it ‘will’ or ‘is going to’ impose a particular sentence. In both Hayes and this matter, no such predictive language was used.”
Were the Supreme Court to side with Winfrey, it would reverse the Hayes decision it just rendered last year, says the prosecution, which argues also that Winfrey failed to establish the basis for an appeal by objecting to the judge’s remarks at the time.
Read more here: Georgia Supreme Court to hear Bloods gang case involving Lil Wayne | Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
Flow Gon Fuck Him Up In Jail 
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