After being granted bond in his federal gun case last October, NBA YoungBoy (real name Kentrell Gaulden) has been residing in Utah under severe house arrest rules. The 22-year-old rapper won the case right away as the trial got underway in the Central District of California on Wednesday, July 13.
Rolling Stone reports that the prosecution attempted to use lyrics from YoungBoy’s songs “Gunsmoke,” “Life Support,” and “Lonely Child” to link him to a FN handgun that he allegedly had on him when he was detained. These lyrics were later excluded from the case.
“These lyrics are highly prejudicial as they discuss hardcore rap which has been empirically established to be more negatively received than other genres of music,” YoungBoy’s legal team argued.
“It would be one thing if the music described this arrest. But a song referencing a similar gun well before the gun in the indictment was purchased … offer[s] very minimal probative value and [is] substantially outweighed by the prejudice contained within the words of the songs.”
They continued, “Even if Mr. Gaulden is familiar with various models of guns and sings about them, it does not mean that he knew this particular gun was secreted on the passenger floor of the Maybach when police attempted to pull his car over to arrest him.”
On March 22, 2021, YoungBoy was apprehended in Los Angeles following a brief chase in his car and even on foot, which ended when police discovered him in a neighbor’s garden.
When the Baton Rouge native left his L.A. residence, police attempted to pull him over because they believed he had an outstanding warrant against him. Police reportedly found a FN.45 handgun in YB’s car after searching it, which they connected to YB’s possession and led to his detention.
“They have no fingerprint evidence to submit to you that indicates that he handled that firearm,” YoungBoy’s attorney James P. Manasseh told the court. “They will not have any DNA evidence that they can present to you that will indicate that his DNA is on that firearm.
“In fact, what they’re going to show is that there are five different DNA profiles on that gun. So many that they can’t really identify and say whose might have been on it.”
The federal trial for YoungBoy is scheduled to last four days. In Louisiana, he is still up against a different firearms lawsuit.
