The young rapper, YoungBoy Never Broke Again (also known as NBA YoungBoy or YoungBoy), was recently found not guilty of the charge felon in possession of a firearm by a jury in Los Angeles.
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YoungBoy, born Kentrell Gaulden, was arrested in March 2021 with an FN FNX .45 caliber pistol in the floorboard of his Mercedes. This arrest stemmed from his agents executing a warrant from a separate and still pending September 2020 case.
The charge of a felon in possession of a firearm, however, was dropped on July 15.
“I’m feeling great,” Gaulden told Rolling Stone after hearing the not guilty verdict. “It’s a relief.”
Gaulden and his lawyers—one being James Manasseh—argued that Gaulden was not aware of the gun’s location in his car. Manasseh also stated that prosecutors had not found any DNA evidence that linked Gaulden to the gun in question.
“The attorneys for the government didn’t have enough to solidly pin it on him. There was reasonable doubt,” juror Mejan Barriere told Rolling Stone. “Our main topic was ‘that day.’ Nobody knew who actually was at his house that day. They didn’t know if he knew the gun was in the car that day. And then we basically, we just argued that since they couldn’t prove he had knowledge of the gun that day, that we couldn’t say without a reasonable doubt that he knew about the gun.”
Gaulden’s 2020 case in Louisiana is set for a trial date of August 2.
Gaulden’s debut studio album Until Death Call My Name peaked at the number seven spot on the Billboard 200 chart. He also has notable collaborations with Juice WRLD and Tyler, the Creator among other rappers and hip-hop artists. His third studio album, Sincerely, Kentrell, famously topped the charts while the rapper was incarcerated.
