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

Williams pleaded guilty in court Thursday afternoon.

He was sentenced to time served and 15 years of probation and is expected to be released to house arrest on Thursday.

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

“Yes,” Williams said before his attorney weighed in on one of the charges.

According to ABC affiliate WSB-TV in Atlanta, which was in the courtroom Thursday, the rapper’s plea deal is unnegotiated, meaning the final decision on sentencing is up to the judge.

He pleaded nolo contendere to two counts, including violating the RICO Act, which is a plea of ​​no contest or no defense, meaning the defendant neither admits nor denies the charges against him, WSB-TV reported.

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

Williams will be released from jail; although he could be put back behind bars if he violates the terms of his sentence.

Williams was initially charged on May 10, 2022, with one count each of conspiracy to violate the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and engaging in criminal street gang activity, and was later charged with a additional charge of street gang participation. physical activity, three counts of violation of the Georgia controlled substances law, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a machine gun.

Before the 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 has been the longest trial in Georgia so far, prosecutors alleged that the Grammy-winning rapper is a co-founder and “proclaimed leader” of an alleged criminal street gang. in Fulton County. , Georgia, known as “Young Slime Life” or “YSL.”

“YSL members and associates moved as a pack with Jeffrey Williams at the head,” Fulton County Deputy Prosecutor Adriane Love alleged during opening statements.

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Love claimed that the alleged YSL members committed “criminal street gang activities, that is, crimes intended to further the purpose and directives of YSL.”

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

The Grammy-winning rapper was charged in May 2022 in a sweeping RICO indictment in Fulton County, Georgia. He was among 28 individuals charged, but was tried with five co-defendants after many of the defendants accepted plea deals, while the judge ruled that others will be tried separately.

The rapper’s star power brought national attention to this case and the prosecutor’s controversial use of his lyrics, as well as lyrics performed by some of his defendants, as alleged evidence in this case further propelled him to prominence. national attention.

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

Prosecutors argued in the indictment that social media posts, images and various song lyrics posted by several defendants, including Young Thug, are “overt acts in furtherance of conspiracy” to violate the RICO Act.

Although the scope of the allegation went far beyond the use of rap lyrics, the inclusion of lyrics sparked outrage from artists across the music industry and helped spawn a movement that became known as “Protect Black Art.”

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

Steel argued that “(lyrics) cannot be used as evidence of a crime if they are simply connected to music/free speech/free speech/poetry.”

Glanville denied the motion in a November 2022 ruling, where he determined that 17 sets of letters mentioned in the indictment could be preliminarily admitted at trial.

“I am conditionally admitting those outstanding letters, depending or subject to a basis properly established by the state or the proponent seeking to admit that evidence,” Glanville said.

The judge added that if prosecutors intend to include additional letters as part of the alleged evidence in this case, they can be presented for the judge’s review.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.