Judge Refuses To Dismiss C-Murder's Trial, Date Set
RiddimRyder said
11:56 02/13 2008
February 12th, 2008 | Author: Paul W Arnold
According to a report in todays edition of The Times-Picayune, Corey C-Murder Miller will in fact still stand trial for the shooting death of 16-year-old Steve Thomas on January 12, 2002.
Yesterday, the judge presiding over the 36-year-old rappers case denied a request made by Millers lawyer, Ron Rakosky, to throw out the charge. The defenses motion, filed in December of 2006, stated that the prosecution presented witnesses to the grand jury (who indicted Miller in February 2002 for second-degree murder) who knew nothing about Thomas murder, and whose testimony was in the defenses opinion presented "for no purpose other than to poison the deliberations of the grand jury.
In a brief hearing on Monday 24th Judicial District Court Judge Martha Sassone quickly dismissed that suggestion by denying the motion.
"What are we doing today?" Sassone asked the attorneys in the case. Assistant District Attorney David Wolff named the three defense motions, to toss out the indictment and to suppress evidence and witness identifications of Miller. "All those will be denied," Sassone said bluntly, offering no elaboration. "What's next?" Rakosky objected, but Jefferson Parrish prosecutors defended their indictment of his client by arguing that Rakoskys claims of jury poisoning were not grounded in Louisianas code of criminal procedure. Rakosky alleged in his motion to quash the indictment that the five witnesses presented to the grand jury testified about the August 2001 incident at Club Raggs in Baton Rouge (in which Miller is awaiting trial on charges of trying to shoot a nightclub owner and a security officer), and not the shooting of Thomas. Rakosky also argued that prosecutors failed to share information with the grand jury that would have been favorable to Miller, including the inconsistency of some of the witnesses testimony.
In one of the three defense motions that was denied yesterday, Rakosky unsuccessfully attempted to bar from trial items seized in April 2002 from Millers jail cell at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center, along with clothing recovered from an apartment in Harvey, Louisiana that is believed to have been worn by Miller the night Thomas was murdered.
In another one of the three failed defense motions, Rakosky challenged the means by which detectives got witnesses to identify Miller in photographs. Miller was originally convicted in September 2003 for the slaying of Thomas, but Sassone granted a defense request for a new trial months later on grounds that prosecutors at the time improperly withheld from the defense attorneys criminal background information on three state witnesses. The Louisiana State Supreme Court upheld that ruling in March 2006, allowing for this retrial. C-Murders new trial is set to begin June 9th. If convicted he faces a mandatory life sentence. He is currently under house arrest as a condition of his half-a-million dollar bond.
According to a report in todays edition of The Times-Picayune, Corey C-Murder Miller will in fact still stand trial for the shooting death of 16-year-old Steve Thomas on January 12, 2002.
Yesterday, the judge presiding over the 36-year-old rappers case denied a request made by Millers lawyer, Ron Rakosky, to throw out the charge. The defenses motion, filed in December of 2006, stated that the prosecution presented witnesses to the grand jury (who indicted Miller in February 2002 for second-degree murder) who knew nothing about Thomas murder, and whose testimony was in the defenses opinion presented "for no purpose other than to poison the deliberations of the grand jury.
In a brief hearing on Monday 24th Judicial District Court Judge Martha Sassone quickly dismissed that suggestion by denying the motion.
"What are we doing today?" Sassone asked the attorneys in the case. Assistant District Attorney David Wolff named the three defense motions, to toss out the indictment and to suppress evidence and witness identifications of Miller.
"All those will be denied," Sassone said bluntly, offering no elaboration. "What's next?"
Rakosky objected, but Jefferson Parrish prosecutors defended their indictment of his client by arguing that Rakoskys claims of jury poisoning were not grounded in Louisianas code of criminal procedure. Rakosky alleged in his motion to quash the indictment that the five witnesses presented to the grand jury testified about the August 2001 incident at Club Raggs in Baton Rouge (in which Miller is awaiting trial on charges of trying to shoot a nightclub owner and a security officer), and not the shooting of Thomas. Rakosky also argued that prosecutors failed to share information with the grand jury that would have been favorable to Miller, including the inconsistency of some of the witnesses testimony.
In one of the three defense motions that was denied yesterday, Rakosky unsuccessfully attempted to bar from trial items seized in April 2002 from Millers jail cell at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center, along with clothing recovered from an apartment in Harvey, Louisiana that is believed to have been worn by
Miller the night Thomas was murdered.
In another one of the three failed defense motions, Rakosky challenged the means by which detectives got witnesses to identify Miller in photographs.
Miller was originally convicted in September 2003 for the slaying of Thomas, but Sassone granted a defense request for a new trial months later on grounds that prosecutors at the time improperly withheld from the defense attorneys criminal background information on three state witnesses. The Louisiana State Supreme Court upheld that ruling in March 2006, allowing for this retrial.
C-Murders new trial is set to begin June 9th. If convicted he faces a mandatory life sentence. He is currently under house arrest as a condition of his half-a-million dollar bond.