ATLANTA — Prosecutors said Monday that the final two defendants in a long-running gang and racketeering trial committed murder on behalf of an Atlanta street gang co-founded by rapper Young Thug.

But defense attorneys said the state combined cherry-picked social media posts and song lyrics with unreliable witness testimony to paint a misleading narrative about struggling youth who tried to escape poverty through music.

Now it’s up to a jury to decide whether to convict Shannon Stillwell and Deamonte Kendrick, who raps as Yak Gotti, on gang, murder, drug and gun charges. The original indictment charged 28 individuals with conspiring to violate Georgia’s Corrupt and Racketeer Influenced Organizations Act.

The trial for six of these defendants began a year ago. Four of them, including Young Thug, pleaded guilty last month. Stillwell and Kendrick rejected plea deals after weeks of negotiations, and their attorneys chose not to present evidence or witnesses.

The process was plagued by problems and delays. Judge Paige Reese Whitaker, who took over the case in July after the original judge recused herself, often lost her temper with prosecutors.

Kendrick and Stillwell were charged in the 2015 slaying of Donovan Thomas Jr., also known as “Big Nut,” at an Atlanta barbershop. Prosecutors say Thomas was in a rival gang. Stillwell was also accused of killing Shymel Drinks in 2022 in retaliation for the killing of two YSL associates days earlier, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors alleged that Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, in 2012 co-founded a criminal street gang called Young Slime Life, or YSL, which they said was associated with the national Bloods gang. Young Thug’s label is also known as YSL, for Young Stoner Life. Kendrick was featured on two popular songs from the label’s compilation album Slime Language 2, “Take It to Trial” and “Slatty,” and another Young Thug song that prosecutors played during their closing.

Doug Weinstein, Kendrick’s attorney, said it was wrong for prosecutors to target the defendants — all of whom are black — for their music and lyrics.

Prosecutor Simone Hylton said the case was about “real bodies”, not “a song over a beat”.

“We are targeting gang members who have decided to wreak havoc in the communities of Fulton County,” Hylton said. “And those communities that they violated, those communities were communities of color.”

Prosecutor Christian Adkins said YSL was a violent gang that operated through “deception, intimidation, destruction and death”.

He pointed to social media posts where he said members had killed people from rival gangs and said their clothes and tattoos were “billboards” for YSL.

Weinstein and Stillwell’s attorney, Max Schardt, said prosecutors threw a bunch of separate alleged crimes, many dating back about a decade, into an indictment without showing they were connected to a criminal enterprise.

“The state has spent the last year with a hammer in hand, hitting a square peg they call evidence,” Schardt said.

But “that square nail doesn’t fit in that round hole,” he said.

Alleged YSL affiliates said during the trial that they lied to police to avoid lengthy prison terms. Schardt theorized that one of those witnesses killed Thomas. He framed Stillwell, Kendrick and others as part of his string of lies to avoid the threat of prison, Schardt said.

But Hylton said the witnesses and others lied on the stand when they were in front of the people “they ripped off,” not the police.

Before he was “absorbed by this targeting of Jeffery Williams,” Weinstein said Kendrick focused on a rap career that helped him move on from his troubled past after plans to play football at the University of Georgia fell through.

His client wasn’t even in the car used in the shooting that killed Thomas, Weinstein said. But prosecutors said it was Kendrick who alerted his counterparts to Thomas’ whereabouts before he was killed.

“He’s just as guilty as those who pulled the trigger,” Hylton said.

Schardt said surveillance footage showed Stillwell walking away from Drinks’ car before he was shot, and no gunshot residue was found in Stillwell’s vehicle. Hylton said the footage proved Stillwell fled the scene at 140 miles per hour through a red light after firing at least three rounds into Drinks’ Nissan.

Nine people charged in the indictment, including rapper Gunna, accepted plea deals before the trial began. Charges against 12 others remain pending. Prosecutors dropped charges against a defendant after he was convicted of murder in an unrelated case.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberations on Tuesday. If they don’t reach a verdict Wednesday, they’ll be back after Thanksgiving.