22-year-old rapper YoungBoy Never Broke Again, born Kentrell D. Gaulden, was found Friday not guilty to a felony count of possession of a firearm and ammunition, closing one of two state gun cases he faced .
A jury in Los Angeles made its decision on its second day of deliberations after around two hours. Mr Gaulden, known to fans as the NBA YoungBoy or YB, faced up to 10 years in prison in the case.
The California gun charges stemmed from YoungBoy’s March 2021 arrest in the Los Angeles area under a separate federal gun ownership warrant from a previous incident in the rapper’s home state of Louisiana. In September 2020, YoungBoy was among 16 people accused of possessing guns and drugs during a video shoot in Baton Rouge. His lawyers said none of the contraband was in his possession.
Prosecutors in the Central District of California said that YoungBoy initially appeared to be cooperating in trying to execute the warrant in the case, overtaking his Mercedes Maybach before taking off again and leading officers on a “high-speed chase.” After the rapper fled on foot, police found an FNX .45 caliber handgun and ammunition along with cash and jewelry behind the passenger seat.
YoungBoy’s attorneys argued that the rapper was unaware of his outstanding federal warrant at the time and panicked when armed officers approached his vehicle, prompting him to take off. He didn’t know the gun was in the car, they said, and YoungBoy was not linked to the gun through usable fingerprints or DNA.
Prosecutors had attempted to link the rapper to the gun using a photo and social media video of YoungBoy, who, according to court documents, was “wielding a gold and brown gun identical to the firearm recovered from his car.” seemed to be”. The photo was taken at the same Philadelphia store that sold YoungBoy the jewelry that was also found in the car, they argued. Lawyers for the rapper said the gun was identical to an airsoft replica and could not be confirmed as the same gun.
“We believe the evidence presented in this case supports the charges brought by the grand jury,” Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, said in a statement. “While we are disappointed with the verdict, we respect the jury’s decision.”
As the trial began Tuesday, case judge R. Gary Klausner ruled that the lyrics to three YoungBoy songs are barred from use in court. Prosecutors had said the leads — “Gunsmoke,” “Life Support,” and “Lonely Child” — referred to “an individual associated with the purchaser of the gun, the model of gun found in his car, and the jewelry maker of the jewelry found in Connection is next to the weapon.”
However, the rapper’s attorneys successfully argued that the “hardcore” and “highly inflammatory” rap lyrics were derogatory and not directly relevant, noting that the song, which mentioned an FN pistol, was released before the FN gun confiscated from the Maybach was purchased.
“It’s for entertainment,” they wrote in a court filing. “It’s not an admission of other bad deeds, but it puts the rappers in a bad light, and the jury could infer from the song that Mr. Gaulden is a violent person and take those feelings into the deliberation room.”
The rapper’s attorneys added, “The real issues are: 1) whether he knew the gun was in the car and 2) whether he intended to possess it. It’s a relatively simple case.”
Known for his raw reality rap, prolific output, and obsessive online following, YoungBoy is among the most-streamed artists in the United States this year, rivaling the likes of Drake and Taylor Swift. Since signing a $2 million deal with Atlantic Records in 2016, he’s frequently topped the Billboard album charts — hit No. 1 with four releases in less than two years — but continues to largely exist outside of the mainstream. entertainment business, which is partly due to his ongoing legal issues.
In 2017, YoungBoy pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a firearm and was sentenced to a 10-year suspended sentence plus probation for his role in a nonfatal drive-by shooting for which he was originally charged with attempted first-degree murder . In 2019, the rapper was sentenced to 90 days in prison after subsequent arrests, including for a domestic violence incident to which he pled guilty.
Since October, when he was granted $500,000 bail in the federal gun cases, YoungBoy has lived in domestic custody in Utah, where he continues to record and release music.
YoungBoy’s additional state gun case in Louisiana is ongoing. His attorneys have argued he was unjustly targeted, highlighting law enforcement’s name for one of their operations: Never Free Again, “an apparent offshoot of Gaulden’s hugely successful music and marketing brand.” The rapper’s attorneys have successfully suppressed video evidence in the allegedly unconstitutionally procured case.
The rapper’s arrest in Los Angeles last year, his attorneys said, was a “massive and wholly unnecessary militaristic display of violence and intimidation.”