Rapper Pooh Shiesty was denied bail on Wednesday following his arrest on charges he brandished an AK-style pistol and forced Gucci Mane to sign a contract release while the label executive was allegedly cornered inside a Dallas recording studio.
Shiesty, born Lontrell Williams Jr., was remanded to a Texas jail after a judge determined he posed a flight risk, according to a court order signed Wednesday and obtained by Rolling Stone. The judge found that Williams qualified for detention because the charges involve the alleged use of a firearm and carry a potential sentence of life in prison. The court also found that Williams was on home detention at the time of the alleged incident and did not have permission to be in Dallas.
“Based on the credible evidence presented at the hearing, the court finds probable cause to believe that defendant committed the law violations alleged in the criminal complaint,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Renée Harris Toliver wrote in the order. “The court finds that there is no condition or combination of conditions the court can impose in this case which will reasonably assure defendant’s appearance as required or the safety of the community or another person if released.”
After the hearing, Williams’s longtime defense lawyer, Bradford Cohen, told Fox 4 News that he found it “fascinating” that federal prosecutors took three months to bring charges. He said the delay suggested investigators had reservations about what occurred inside the studio on Jan. 10, 2026, describing early witness statements as “very questionable.”
“The FBI doesn’t take three months to arrest someone if they believe everything that was said,” Cohen said. “There is no contract, this mystery contract. 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.”
Williams was charged in a criminal complaint unsealed last week and obtained by Rolling Stone. Prosecutors say he arranged the meeting in Dallas after becoming upset with the terms of his recording contract. The complaint identifies Gucci Mane, whose legal name is Radric Davis, by his initials, R.D., and describes him as the head of 1017 Records, the label that signed Williams in 2021.
According to the complaint, Williams traveled from Memphis with eight others, including his father, Lontrell Williams Sr., and the rapper Big30, whose legal name is Rodney Wright Jr. Prosecutors allege the confrontation escalated when Wright retrieved a bag for Williams containing an AK-style pistol and used a phone to record as Davis was ordered to sign paperwork terminating the contract. With the weapon pointed at him, Davis was forced to state that he “released” Williams from the agreement, the complaint says.
Prosecutors further allege that Williams took Davis’s wedding ring, watch, earrings, and cash, while Wright blocked the exit, trapping multiple people inside the studio as they were robbed of Rolex watches, jewelry, cash, a Louis Vuitton bag, and a wallet fitted with an Apple AirTag. One victim was “choked from behind to the point of nearly losing consciousness,” according to the complaint, which includes photographs showing scratches on the man’s neck and wrist.
Investigators say one co-defendant, Terrance Rodgers, later posted a video on social media wearing what they identified as a Rolex taken in the robbery. They claim another defendant, Demarcus Glover, shared images of himself wearing jewelry allegedly stolen from a victim.
Representatives for Wright and Davis did not respond to requests for comment.
Prosecutors said they have extensive evidence linking Williams to the crime, including data from his ankle monitor that they say places him at the studio in violation of his home detention. Williams was released early from prison last October after serving three years of a five-year sentence for a gun charge out of Miami. In that case, he pleaded guilty to conspiring to possess a firearm in furtherance of crimes of violence and drug trafficking. He had been released to home detention and was barred from possessing a firearm at the time of the alleged January kidnapping and robbery.
Authorities say license plate reader data shows several defendants traveling together from Memphis to Dallas, and rental records indicate that Williams’s father leased a vehicle used by the group. Surveillance footage from the studio, a nearby office supply store, and a hotel where some defendants stayed, along with latent fingerprints recovered at the scene, also helped lead to the charges, officials said. Investigators added that the last known location of the AirTag attached to the stolen wallet was a parking lot next to an apartment leased by Williams’s father.
All nine defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping, which carries a potential sentence of life in prison.
“Nine defendants traveled to Dallas, Texas, to kidnap and rob victims who thought they were coming into town for a business meeting,” Ryan Raybould, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, said in a statement. “Instead of discussing business in a civil manner, the defendants resorted to violence and intimidation to achieve their purported business objectives.”
Anthony Orosz*