Rapper YoungBoy Never Broke Again found not guilty in gun possession case

LOS ANGELES — Chart-topping rapper YoungBoy Never Broke Again was found not guilty on Friday of possessing a firearm and ammunition as a felon.

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The 22-year-old musician, born Kentrell D. Gaulden, jumped up in celebration after the jury in Los Angeles reached its verdict after deliberating for approximately two hours, Rolling Stone reported.

“I’m feeling great,” Gaulden told the magazine. “It’s a relief.”

Gaulden, who is known to fans as NBA YoungBoy or YB, faced up to 10 years in prison, The New York Times reported.

“We believe the evidence presented in this case supported the charges brought by the grand jury,” Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, said in a statement. “While we are disappointed with the verdict, we respect the jury’s decision.”

“The attorneys for the government didn’t have enough to solidly pin it on him. There was reasonable doubt,” juror Mejan Barriere, 21, told Rolling Stone after the verdict. “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,” Barriere said.

Gaulden was arrested on March 22, 2021, after a chase through the suburban Los Angeles neighborhood of Tarzana, KABC-TV reported. Prosecutors alleged a gun was recovered from the floorboard of Gaulden’s Mercedes-Benz.

The arrest was based on a felony gun possession warrant out of Louisiana for a separate case that is still pending, Rolling Stone reported.

In September 2020, Gaulden was among 16 people accused of possessing guns and drugs at a video shoot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the Times reported. His lawyers said none of the contraband was in his possession.

The Baton Rouge native has released more than a dozen singles, mixtapes and albums over the years, KABC reported. In 2019, Gaulden released the single “Bandit,’’ which became his first top-10 single. His “AI YoungBoy 2″ mixtape debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

Gaulden is one of the most-streamed artists in the U.S. this year, the Times reported. He signed a $2 million deal with Atlantic Records in 2016 and has hit No. 1 with four releases in less than two years, according to the newspaper.

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