Murder Convictions Upheld For YSL Allies: GA Supreme Court

ATLANTA, GA — Georgia's highest court has upheld murder convictions for YSL associates Rodalius "Lil Rod" Ryan and Damone "Bali" Blalock.

The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that attorneys for Blalock and Ryan, who are serving life sentences for the 2019 shooting death of 15-year-old Jamari Holmes, failed to prove ineffective counsel during their September 2021 murder trial.

Blalock was age 17, and Ryan was 15 years old, at the time of the fatal shooting at Mount Zion Road, according to past court documents.

The trial counsel's inability to have a witness' testimony struck from the record after she invoked her Fifth Amendment right came into question, according to the Supreme Court opinion obtained by Patch.

The justices said the defendants also claimed counselors neglected to object to the "trial court's charge on how the jury should assess (the witness') invocation of that right.

" ... Counsel’s assumed failures are unlikely to have affected the outcome of the trial, and we do not see that the prejudice from these two deficiencies would cumulate in any way to cast doubt on the verdict," the justices wrote in an opinion released Tuesday.

Further arguments said the trial counsel did not review or introduce specific evidence on behalf of Ryan and Blalock, and that Ryan's alibi was not investigated.

In an unrelated matter, Ryan and Blalock faced charges in the well-known YSL gang and racketeering indictment against rapper Jeffery "Young Thug" Williams and 25 others.

The charges against Blalock were dropped. Ryan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and was sentenced to 10 years commuted to time served and to be run concurrently with the life sentence he is serving in connection with Holmes' death.

What Happened?

At the time of the deadly shooting, Ryan and two female witnesses were at Blalock's apartment, according to the opinion.

One of the girls invited Holmes and two other males to meet her and the other witness. They got into Holmes' car, and they went to Ryan's apartment complex to buy marijuana, according to the opinion.

They all handed their money to one of the girls, who went to buy the marijuana but returned to retrieve her female friend, according to the opinion. After the friend got out of the car, the justices said evidence showed the girls heard gunshots and saw Ryan and Blalock shooting at Holmes' car.

The two other victims at the scene could not fully identify the alleged shooters, and one of them did not testify to seeing a second shooter, although he told police otherwise, according to the opinion.

The victims ran, and Ryan picked up the two girls before they all returned to Blalock's apartment, the justices said.

Evidence showed Holmes had been shot in the back of the head with a 7.62-millimeter gun, the justices said. The bullet that hit Holmes had entered from the car's rear and had gone through the passenger seat where he was sitting, the justices said.

According to the opinion, 7.62-millimeter shell casings and 9-millimeter shell casings were recovered at the scene.

The victims told police the two girls were involved in the shooting; the justices said one of the girls was uncooperative during police interviews.

The trial counsel argued that Ryan and Blalock were not at the scene during the shooting and that the two girls were protecting the real suspects.

The Georgia Department of Corrections inmate records showed Blalock and Ryan were convicted of murder, two counts of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and first-degree criminal damage.