NATIONAL NEWS

Video in case against Pooh Shiesty shows him pressing for record label release, prosecutors say

Jul 2, 2026, 3:18 PM | Updated: 3:22 pm

DALLAS (AP) — Prosecutors say a video shows rapper Pooh Shiesty pressing for his release from fellow rapper Gucci Mane’s record label while an armed man blocks a door during an alleged robbery at a Texas music studio in January.

A court record shows the video was submitted as evidence in federal court in Dallas, where Pooh Shiesty and eight others have been indicted on kidnapping and extortion charges. Prosecutors say the victims were robbed at gunpoint after traveling to the city to discuss Pooh Shiesty’s recording contract with Mane’s 1017 Records.

The victims have only been referred to by their initials in court documents. One, R.D., is described as the owner of 1017 Records. Mane’s legal name is Radric Delantic Davis. The song “Crash Dummy,” which Gucci Mane released this spring, includes the lyrics: “I thought it was a business meeting, but it was a set up.”

The court document was filed by prosecutors in response to a motion Pooh Shiesty filed last month proposing home confinement, arguing that the evidence against him did not warrant keeping him in custody pending trial, as was ordered by a judge in April.

But prosecutors said in their filing that the motion from Pooh Shiesty, whose legal name is Lontrell Williams Jr., should be denied and that evidence against him was “extraordinarily strong.”

Prosecutors said they have the cooperation of all five victims and witnesses in the case and cellphone location data. There is also surveillance video placing the defendants at the scene, according to prosecutors, in addition to the video of the owner of 1017 Records being forced to declare that Pooh Shiesty was “dropped” from his label.

Prosecutors said in the filing that just before that video was made, Pooh Shiesty produced a printed contractual release for the record label owner to sign. The man initially refused but signed after Pooh Shiesty allegedly pointed an AK-style pistol his head.

Prosecutors also said BIG30, whose legal name is Rodney Wright, recorded the video with his cellphone while another defendant blocked the door holding a firearm that resembled an AK-47 style rifle.

According to prosecutors, Pooh Shiesty robbed the record label owner of about $450,000 worth of items including his wedding band, a watch, a pair of earrings and cash.

Prosecutors have said that at the time of the alleged confrontation, Pooh Shiesty was on home confinement for a prior firearms conspiracy conviction out of Florida and was required to wear an electronic monitoring device.

Attorneys for Pooh Shiesty and BIG30 did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Thursday.

Gucci Mane is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of trap music alongside fellow Atlanta rappers T.I. and Jeezy. He emerged in the mid-2000s with his breakout single “Icy” and went on to build a vast catalog.

National News

Associated Press

Asian shares are mixed and crude prices fall after an unsettled day on Wall St

Asian shares were mixed Friday in holiday-thinned trading, while oil prices fell back from recent gains. U.S. futures edged higher. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.8% to 68,512.30. The Shanghai Composite index lost 1.4% to 3,758.47, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 1.1% to 24,046.79. China is due to release its latest economic growth […]

4 hours ago

This satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Isaia...

Associated Press

El Niño’s storm-killer winds and climate’s warming waters in fight over future of Hurricane Isaias

A supersized El Niño’s decapitating winds and the Gulf of Mexico’s toasty, storm-fueling waters are battling over the future strength of Hurricane Isaias. And the storm’s tilt and eye show who’s winning. All Atlantic hurricane season there has been “this battle between shear and just the overall conducive conditions,” said Colorado State University hurricane researcher […]

4 hours ago

Associated Press

Federal agents involved in a shooting that wounds a person in New York, police say

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal law enforcement agents shot and wounded a person in New York City on Thursday, city police said. Few details were immediately available about the shooting, which happened around 4 p.m. in the Marble Hill neighborhood north of Manhattan. The person who was shot is conscious and being treated at a […]

10 hours ago

President Donald Trump greets Republican U.S. Senate candidate Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton at...

Associated Press

Trump wants Talarico and Paxton to debate. Talarico couldn’t be happier

WASHINGTON (AP) — When Democratic nominee James Talarico stopped holding campaign events in the Texas Senate race, his Republican opponent Ken Paxton saw an opening to pounce. “Where is James Talarico?” he called out Wednesday during a rally with President Donald Trump in San Antonio. But that night, while flying back to Washington on Air […]

10 hours ago

FILE - Margaret Hamilton of Cambridge, Mass., mathematic and computer programmer at the MIT Instrum...

Associated Press

Margaret Hamilton, who led a software team for NASA’s Apollo program, dies at 90

Margaret Hamilton, a groundbreaking computer scientist who led the team that created the onboard flight software for NASA’s moon-bound Apollo program and later in life was celebrated as a powerful symbol of women in technology, has died. She was 90. Hamilton died Sept. 30 at a hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, her daughter, Lauren Hamilton, told […]

12 hours ago

FILE - Packages in Amazon boxes move along a conveyor belt at the UPS Worldport hub in Louisville, ...

Associated Press

Amazon’s delivery box: a symbol of instant gratification and convenience

NEW YORK (AP) — By late afternoon, dozens of brown boxes in assorted sizes begin piling up in the lobby of my apartment building. Each bears the familiar smile — a cheerful curve stretching from “A” to “Z”— signaling a company that sells everything and promises satisfaction. The Amazon delivery box, found everywhere from suburban […]

12 hours ago

Video in case against Pooh Shiesty shows him pressing for record label release, prosecutors say