Young Thug and his co-defendant did in a 'hand-to-hand drug deal' inside a Georgia courtroom, prosecutors allege

• Young Thug and his co-defendant in the YSL trial are accused of handling drugs in open court.
• Young Thug's lawyer said that he immediately turned over the drugs to deputies.

Rapper Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Lamar Williams, has been accused of conducting a "hand-to-hand drug deal" with his co-defendant inside a Georgia courtroom, as prosecutors described a public court filing.

Prosecutors alleged in a motion filed on Thursday in Georgia's Fulton County Superior Court that Kahlieff Adams — a fellow defendant who's also serving a life sentence for a murder conviction — slipped a Percocet pill into Young Thug's hands during jury selection on Wednesday.

Williams' lawyer, Keith Adams, told Insider that the rapper was surprised when he was handed the pill and immediately turned it over to deputies.

"He didn't want to be in possession of anything that could possibly be contraband," Keith Adams said. "The last thing we need is for anyone to allege that he's committed any sort of crime in the darn court room, in front of cameras."

When asked why Kahlieff Adams would have wanted to hand Williams the percocet in the first place, Williams' lawyer said that Williams barely knows Kahlieff Adams.

"There's kind of a little star factor that we're dealing with where, you know, you got some of these guys who look up to him because he's a star who are trying to impress him," Keith Adams said.

An 88-count grand jury indictment brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis accuses Williams, along with 26 other defendants, of running a criminal enterprise. Prosecutors allege that Williams' record label, YSL — short for Young Slime Life — is, in reality, a "criminal street enterprise" that's part of the national Bloods gang.

Prosecutors allege YSL is responsible for murder, armed robbery, and a litany of other crimes. Williams was arrested in May 2022 on a racketeering conspiracy charge. Jury selection is currently underway in an Atlanta courtroom ahead of a trial that's expected to last more than six months.

In the Thursday motion, prosecutors say the exchange between Kahlieff Adams and Williams was caught on camera.

"DEFENDANT KAHLIEFF ADAMS stood up from his chair inside Courtroom 1C and walked unattended to where DEFENDANT JEFFERY LAMAR WILLIAMS AKA YOUNG THUG was seated at counsel table next to his attorney," the filing says. "DEFENDANT ADAMS approached DEFENDANT WILLIAMS and extended a closed right hand toward DEFENDANT WILLIAMS. DEFENDANT WILLIAMS extended his open right hand toward DEFENDANT ADAMS' closed right hand and accepted an item of contraband, to wit: PERCOCET."

Williams then held the pill under a table to keep it hidden while his attorney sat next to him, prosecutors wrote. He relinquished it when court sheriffs told him to, according to the filing.

Afterward, court officers searched Kahlieff Adams and found even more drugs, prosecutors wrote. The kerfuffle delayed the trial proceedings, they noted in the filing.

"Sheriff recovered from DEFENDANT ADAMS Percocet, marijuana, tobacco, and other contraband, wrapped in plastic and food seasonings to mask the odor of the marijuana," they wrote. "DEFENDANT ADAMS was then taken to Grady Hospital after he appeared to ingest other items of contraband that he held on his person, in an effort to conceal the extent of his crimes within the courtroom."