One Of Last YSL Defendants Sentenced After Getting Plea Deal

One of the final defendants in the highly publicized YSL RICO case has accepted a plea deal this week, ensuring that he will get out of jail within the next two years.

11Alive reports that Damekion Garlington entered an Alford plea this week, accepting his conviction and sentence without admitting guilt.

Garlington pleaded out on five charges, including RICO, two counts of participation in criminal street gang activity, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm while committing a felony.

Judge Paige Whitaker gave Garlington a sentence of five years in prison and 15 years’ probation on four of the charges, to be served concurrently. He was also credited with time served, with him being in custody since May 2022.

For the fifth count, Judge Whitaker gave Garlington a suspended 5-year consecutive sentence. As long as he successfully completes probation, he would serve no additional time.

More from 11Alive:

The judge also provided several special conditions on Garlington’s probation once he gets out of jail: No contact with any of the victims in the case or their families, no contact with any gang members, no gang paraphernalia or associations, no guns or replicas of guns, he has to secure full-time employment within six months after his release, and he must sign a social media waiver and 4th Amendment waiver (meaning, while on probation, he can be searched without probable cause at any time).

Garlington will also have to secure his GED within a year of being released, which he said in court he’s already working toward while in prison. He will also be banned from Fulton County during his probation.

Speaking in court on Wednesday, Judge Whitaker told Garlington, “My hope is that, as I’ve said with other defendants, this has been an opportunity for you to realize that the direction that your life was going is not a good direction, and  that you are determined at this point to turn your life around and make good decisions from here on out, associate yourself only with people that are gonna help you to stay on the straight and narrow.”

“Good luck to you, and I hope to never see you again,” she adds, “Because if you violate your probation, you’re coming before me. So let’s not make that be a thing.”

One Of Last YSL Defendants Sentenced After Accepting Plea Deal  was originally published on hotspotatl.com