ATLANTA — A defendant in the sweeping gang case against Young Thug and a number of his alleged associates wants to represent himself but Fulton County Chief Judge Ural Glanville ordered a mental evaluation instead.
Jayden Myrick, 22, on trial with 13 other defendants, told Glanville during a hearing this week that he has been studying law and was receiving legal advice from former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff.
“I’m not the regular inmate, I be with Joe Biden and Donald Trump and they be talking to me,” Myrick said at one point. “Donald Trump is going to get me out.”
As the hearing continued, it became harder for Glanville and others inside the courtroom to understand him. Glanville asked Myrick if he had taken any medication.
“I have some serious concerns about his present competency,” Glanville said.
Attorney Gina Bernard, who represents Myrick, filed a motion last month asking the judge to schedule a hearing to determine if her client was competent to represent himself.
Myrick told his attorney that he wants to exercise that right, Bernard wrote in the motion.
During the hearing, Glanville asked Myrick a series of questions to determine if he could represent himself and why he wanted to represent himself. Myrick told Glanville he didn’t think Bernard, who is a public defender, was working hard enough for his defense and didn’t want to help him.
The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office provided Glanville with a list of medications Myrick has been prescribed, including an anti-psychotic; the defendant said he hasn’t taken them as instructed.
“I don’t need the medication,” Myrick told Glanville.
Glanville issued an order Tuesday for a mental evaluation to be done within 48 hours by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities to determine Myrick’s competency to stand trial.
If it’s determined Myrick cannot stand trial, his case could be severed, so the trial and jury selection won’t be delayed further, bringing the number of defendants remaining in the YSL trial down to 13, including Atlanta-rapper Young Thug.
Myrick is facing charges of conspiracy to violate the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, attempted murder, possession of a weapon by an incarcerated individual and participation in criminal street gang activity. According to an indictment, Myrick and two other defendants tried to “shank” rival rapper YFN Lucci in February 2022 in the Fulton County Jail.
Myrick is currently serving life without parole after he was convicted in October of murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault and 13 other counts in the July 2018 shooting of Christina Broder outside an Atlanta country club.
Myrick has testified that he has been affiliated with street gangs since he was a child and had ties to YSL and the Nine Trey Gangsters. He said he met Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, on numerous occasions and that the popular rapper attended one of his hearings to show support.
The jury selection process formally began on Jan. 4. Three months later, about 1,200 potential jurors have been summoned but not a single person has been seated.
The jury hardship process is expected to continue into the summer with a sixth group of about 300 jurors reporting on April 28 and a seventh group scheduled to report in May.
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