ATLANTA — Atlanta Rapper Young Thug, whose legal name is Jeffrey Lamar Williams, accepted a plea deal by changing his plea to guilty on gang-related charges in Fulton County, Georgia.

Williams pleaded guilty in court Thursday afternoon.

He was sentenced and sentenced to 15 years of supervised release and was released on home confinement on Thursday.

“Is it your decision to waive those rights and plead guilty because you are actually guilty?” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker asked.

Williams said, “Yes,” before his attorney intervened on one of the accusations.

The rapper’s plea deal was not negotiated, meaning the final decision on sentencing rests with the judge, according to ABC affiliate WSB-TV in Atlanta, which was in the courtroom Thursday.

He pleaded no contest to two charges, including violation of the RICO statute, which means a plea of ​​no contest or plea, WSB-TV reported; This means that the defendant neither admits nor denies the charges against him.

ABC News has reached out to Williams’ attorney, Brian Steel, for additional comment.

Williams will be released from prison; however, he could be sent back behind bars if he violates the terms of his sentence.

Williams was first charged on May 10, 2022, with conspiracy to violate the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and participating in criminal street gang activity, and was later additionally charged with street gang participation. activity, three counts of violation of the Georgia controlled substances act, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and possession of a machine gun.

Before the plea deal was reached, Williams had pleaded not guilty, and his attorney had repeatedly told ABC News that his client was innocent of all charges.

Throughout the racketeering trial, which began in November 2023 and is the longest-running trial ever in Georgia, prosecutors alleged that the Grammy-winning rapper was the co-founder and “declared leader” of an alleged criminal street gang in Fulton County. , Georgia, known as “Teenage Slime Life” or “YSL”.

“YSL members and associates were operating as a pack, with Jeffrey Williams at the head,” Fulton County Deputy District Attorney Adriane Love said in opening statements.

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Love alleged that the alleged YSL members engaged in “criminal street gang activity, that is, crimes aimed at furthering the cause of YSL and advancing their own directives.”

“The group calling itself Young Slime Life has dominated the Cleveland Avenue community in Fulton County for 10 years and counting,” Love said Monday. “And it created a crater in the middle of Fulton County’s Cleveland Avenue community, sucking out its youth, innocence, and even the lives of some of its youngest members.”

The Grammy-winning rapper was charged in a sweeping RICO indictment in May 2022 in Fulton County, Georgia. While he was among the 28 people charged, he was tried together with five defendants after most of the defendants made plea agreements, while the judge decided that the others would be tried separately.

The rapper’s star power brought this case to national attention, and the prosecutor’s controversial use of his lyrics and those of some of the defendants as alleged evidence in this case further thrust him into the national spotlight.

The use of the lyrics sparked outrage from free speech advocates and prominent musicians and producers in the hip-hop world, who argue that rap music and the writing process are a form of artistic expression and not a reflection of reality.

In the indictment, prosecutors argued that social media posts, images and various song lyrics by several defendants, including Young Thug, were “clear acts intended to further the conspiracy” to violate the RICO Act.

Although the scope of the indictment went far beyond the use of rap lyrics, the inclusion of the lyrics sparked outrage from artists in the music industry and helped spark a movement known as “Save Black Art.”

Steel filed a motion asking Judge Ural Glanville, who was removed from the case in December 2022 after consulting with a witness and prosecutors, to block prosecutors from using the lyrics as evidence.

“(Lyrics) cannot be used as criminal evidence only if they are linked to music/freedom of expression/freedom of speech/poetry,” Steel said.

In a decision issued in November 2022, Glanville denied the request and determined that the 17 sets of lyrics named in the indictment could be considered preliminary at trial.

“I conditionally accept the pending lyrics upon or on a basis properly laid by the State or the advocate seeking to admit that evidence,” Glanville said.

The judge added that if prosecutors wish to add additional remarks as part of the alleged evidence in this case, they can be submitted for the judge’s review.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.