A federal judge in Dallas ruled Wednesday that Pooh Shiesty will remain in federal custody after he was arrested last week on kidnapping and robbery charges tied to a January incident at a Dallas recording studio. The same case also brought bond for rapper BIG30, while authorities pressed ahead with a broader case involving nine individuals.
The ruling kept Lontrell Williams Jr., known as Pooh Shiesty, behind bars as the court weighed allegations that he and others were involved in the armed robbery and kidnapping of three people. Federal authorities said Williams was among nine people charged in connection with the case, and that the dispute stemmed from an episode in January at a Dallas music studio.
Federal investigators said Williams set up a meeting with Gucci Mane in Dallas and then held him at gunpoint with an AK-style pistol while demanding to be released from his contract. They also said they tracked Williams using his ankle monitor, and noted that he was supposed to be on home confinement for a 2022 federal case.
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That detail mattered in court because the government’s account rested on a narrow evidentiary base. The FBI said it did not have the alleged contract involved in the dispute, did not have the evidence seen online that led to Williams’s arrest and had not interviewed Gucci Mane or the other victims in the alleged incident. Instead, it said it relied on testimony given to the Dallas Police Department at the scene.
Bradford Cohen, Williams’s defense lawyer, said the government’s version had gaps. “What didn’t we hear today? What we didn’t hear today is there is no contract, this mystery contract,” Cohen said. “They have no contract. They have no video of this alleged signing of a contract. They have no guns, they have no jewelry. They have none of that physical evidence.” He also said, “What they have is they have, allegedly, five individuals, one of them being a very well-known individual that is allegedly cooperating with the government and making these allegations against my client and many more.”
The case ties together a recording deal under Gucci Mane’s New 1017 Records label, a studio confrontation in Dallas and a separate federal history that kept Williams on home confinement in 2022. Wednesday’s ruling leaves him in custody while the prosecution continues to build a case around testimony, surveillance-related claims and allegations that still lack key pieces of physical evidence.
