C-Murder, rapper and brother of Master P, is currently serving a life sentence behind bars, but it looks like he could possibly be getting out soon. Get all the details about the two key witnesses who have come forward to recant their testimonies inside...
Nearly a decade after rapper Corey "C-Murder" Miller was sentenced to life in prison for a fatal shooting, new evidence has surfaced that could possibly get him out. The new information definitely raises questions about whether C-Murder had anything to do with the murder in the first place.
Not one, but TWO key witnesses have publicly come forward to recant the testimonies they gave during the murder trial for the rapper in 2009. At the time, they both made claims that C-Murder was the man who pulled the trigger that killed 16-year-old Steven Thomas inside a nightclub in 2002.
In separate affidavits, the witnesses - Kenneth Jordan& Darnell Jordan (who are not related) - made claims that detectives in the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's office pressured them into identifying C-Murder as the gunman.
In a handwritten letter sent to the 24th Judicial District Court on Monday, Darnell Jordan explained how detectives tricked him into naming C-Murder as the trigger man.
"I am certain that Corey Miller did not shoot Steve Thomas," 35-year-old Darnell Jordan wrote. “I just want to tell the truth and clear my name.” He was a bouncer at the now-closed Platinum Club where the shooting occurred.
#BREAKING: the SECOND key witness, in the #CMurder case, is also recanting his testimony; says he, too, felt pressured to lie & say the rapper shot & killed a teen in 2002. His sworn affidavit says, “C-Murder didn’t do this...I just want to tell the truth & clear my name.” @wdsupic.twitter.com/MJRRjZ8zN3
— Christina Watkins (@CWatkinsWDSU) July 2, 2018
Less than a week earlier, Kenneth also recanted his testimony. In the affidavit, Kenneth gives details how detectives pressured him into naming C-Murder with threats and promises that he'll get to "go home."
“I know that the individual who I saw shoot the gun was not Corey Miller,” 36-year-old Kenneth wrote in a signed affidavit. “I want to right the wrong that I made all those years ago. I can no longer live with knowing that Corey Miller is sitting in jail for something he did not do because of my fabricated statement.”
C-Murder witness recanted testimony that the rapper shot & killed a teen in 2002. He said, “I can no longer live with knowing that Corey Miller is sitting in jail for something he did not do because of my fabricated statement.” @wdsupic.twitter.com/JoWZnjcdrf
— Christina Watkins (@CWatkinsWDSU) June 26, 2018
Kenneth said detectives coerced him into naming C-Murder as the shooter by threatening to charge him for the death of his then-recently deceased newborn child. Before C-Murder's retrial, Kenneth told police the original statement he gave was wrong, however, they still forced him to testify.
The HuffPost reports:
Kenneth Jordan now says that, despite his sworn testimony, he did not see Miller shoot Thomas. He says Jefferson Parish detectives didn’t question him until a year after the shooting and then threatened him with a decade behind bars for impregnating a 16-year-old girl.
“The JPSO officer approached me and offered me leniency in my criminal case if I agreed to cooperate and give them a statement implicating Corey Miller,” reads Kenneth Jordan’s newly signed affidavit. “I told the JPSO officers that I saw the shooter and the shooter was not Corey Miller. However, the officer pressured me to lie and say it was Corey Miller, all while holding criminal charges over my head.”
He said the officer went so far as to coach him on creating his original account.
“I was distraught and scared,” Kenneth Jordan claims in the affidavit. “JPSO officers told me that if I testified against Corey Miller I could ‘go home’; they told me what to say; they fed me facts about the fight and details about the DJ and the dance party, none of which I really knew.”
C-Murder's attorney Paul Barker is now working to have the jailed rapper's conviction overturned.
“On countless occasions, Mr. Jordan told members of law enforcement and prosecution that his 2003 recorded statement to the JPSO officers was not true, that the person he saw commit the shooting was definitely not Corey Miller, and that he did not want to lie under oath about Corey’s involvement,” Barker wrote in the court filing. “At no time during the 15+ years of proceedings in this tortured case has the state once disclosed this information to Mr. Miller himself, or to Mr. Miller’s attorneys.”
f true, this screams crooked system!
“The entire conviction was based on the testimony of these two witnesses and we now have affidavits recanting both of those testimonies,” Paul Barker told HuffPost. “We can now essentially impeach the state’s entire case. There’s nothing left for them to hang their hat on.”
After C-Murder found out about the first witness (Kenneth) recanting his testimony, he spoke to WDSU from prison sharing his feelings about it.
"I want him to know I’m not upset with him. I’m proud of him. And me and my family, and my daughters. My daughters, we thank him. For real. This is a life-changing moment," he said.
"I'm not gonna lie. These last 16 years have been a definite struggle. I've been snatched away from my family, separated from my kids, from my career, everything. And I just want it back. My heart hasn't smiled since I've been locked up for 16 years, and I just want them to know that my heart is smiling," C-Murder continued.
C-Murder's lawyer has has petitioned the court to vacate the conviction and order a new trial. C-Murder has maintained his innocence throughout the entire process and his family, including Master P and his son Romeo Miller, want him out of jail NOW:
We'll keep you posted if/when C-Murder is granted a new trial.
