C-Murder Sentenced To Life In Prison

Rapper was found guilty of fatal Louisiana nightclub shooting Wednesday.
By Gil Kaufman

Three days after a Louisiana jury found him guilty of second-degree murder (twice, actually), rapper Corey "C-Murder" Miller was sentenced to life in prison on Friday (August 14).

According to The Associated Press, District Judge Hans Liljeberg gave Miller, 38, the mandatory life sentence following the onetime No Limit Records rap star's conviction in the 2002 shooting of 16-year-old fan Steve Thomas at a now-closed nightclub in Harvey, Louisiana.

Miller, who changed his rap name to C. Miller during the trial, was found guilty in the case on Tuesday morning, but Liljeberg made the jury return to deliberations because he suspected they had rushed their verdict to end deliberation. The rapper was convicted in 2003 in the same case but had that conviction overturned on appeal.

Just as it had earlier in the day on Tuesday, the jury voted 10-2 in their second verdict, finding that Miller shot Thomas once in the chest as the teen lay on his back while being beaten by the rapper's friends at the now-shuttered Platinum Club on January 12, 2002.

Thomas was a high school student who idolized Miller and his rapper brothers, No Limit founder Percy "Master P" Miller and Vishonn "Silkk the Shocker" Miller, and had even made some gold fronts out of golden ashtrays he got from work as an homage to the hometown hip-hop heroes. On the night of the shooting, Thomas told his father he was going to a movie but used a fake ID to go to the Platinum Club, knowing Miller would be there for a rap competition, in which Thomas performed, according to testimony.

Prosecutors said on Tuesday that they were confident in the verdict and did not believe an appeal would be filed. On Friday, Liljeberg rejected a request from Miller's attorney for a new trial, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and the life sentence comes without the possibility of parole. Liljeberg granted a request from Miller's lawyer, who said he had not been paid for his services, to withdraw as the rapper's attorney and not be part of an appeal. The judge said he will appoint a public defender to help Miller, who said he would work on raising money to hire his own lawyer to file the appeal.

Miller has pleaded no contest to separate second-degree attempted-murder charges stemming from a 2001 incident at Baton Rouge, Louisiana's Club Raggs, in which he allegedly pulled a gun on a bouncer. His sentencing in the Club Raggs case is scheduled for August 25.