In Jan. 2024, Atlanta rapper YFN Lucci received a 20-year prison sentence stemming from three-year-old RICO charges. So, why was everyone expecting Lucci to be a free man before the end of the year?

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To recap, in 2021, Lucci — born Rayshawn Bennett — was one of about a dozen suspects named in a sprawling indictment related to Bloods street gang activity under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Lucci turned himself in, according to the Atlanta news outlet WSBTV.com. Controversially, Lucci’s lyrics and social media content were used as evidence against him.

The first plea deal

YFN Lucci was still behind bars about two years later when he was offered a plea deal: Plead guilty to all 13 RICO charges against him, including felony murder, and serve 20 years with credit for time served. In June 2023, 11Alive.com reported that Lucci and his legal team rejected the proposal. At that time, his attorney,  Drew Findling, said in a statement,

“The absurd ‘plea offer’ being reported is accurate. However, a plea offer is not any indication of the likelihood of a plea, and, in fact, Mr. Bennett is still waiting — after two and a half years in custody — to be given a potential trial date … Despite the obstacles consistently placed in the way of Mr. Bennett’s constitutional right to a speedy and fair trial, we continue to be ready and prepared to defend these false allegations.”

via 11Alive.com

YFN Lucci accepted 20 years … with a catch

BREAKING: YFN Lucci will serve about 3.5 months in jail and then he will be released and serve the rest of his sentence on probation. @wsbtv

— Michael Seiden (@SeidenWSBTV) January 23, 2024

By Jan. 2024, however, Atlanta prosecutors offered YFN Lucci another deal, and he accepted. In exchange for all but one charge being dropped, he’d plead guilty and be sentenced to 20 years, 10 of which would be in prison with credit for time served, and the rest would be served on probation. Most crucially, Lucci would be eligible for parole in less than four months, putting Lucci’s release date sometime in April that year.

In an email to Pitchfork, Lucci’s lawyers added,

“After three years of pretrial litigation, more than two weeks of jury selection, and three years of incarceration waiting for his jury trial, today, the prosecution finally relented and dismissed the murder and RICO charges against Rayshawn Bennett (aka YFN Lucci).”

via Pitchfork

According to the AP, when Lucci agreed to the deal, prosecutors said parole would be granted in about four months so that Lucci could get back to, “his children, family, and career,” the musician’s lawyers added.