C-Murder Denied New Trial

03/11/2005 9:25 PM, E! Online
Charlie Amter

It looks like C-Murder will get ample opportunity to make jailhouse recordings.

The currently incarcerated New Orleans rapper, who recorded a full album and shot a video while behind bars on a murder charge, has suffered a devastating blow to his chances of being sprung after a state appeals court deep-sixed a new trial in the case.

C-Murder, whose real name is Corey Miller, was convicted in 2003 of second-degree murder for shooting a teenager to death outside a Louisiana nightclub in January 2002.

The conviction was overturned and he was granted a new trial when State District Judge Martha Sassone ruled that prosecutors did not disclose that two witnesses had criminal records and had worked out deals in exchange for their testimony.

But on Thursday, a Louisiana appellate court reversed that. Two of three justices on a 5th Circuit Court of Appeal panel said that "there was an abundance of other evidence which fully established Miller's guilt.

Now, Master P's brother and sometime recording mate faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole for killing 16-year-old Steve Thomas.

C-Murder's lawyer, defense attorney Ron Rakosky, said he planned to appeal the decision.

The 34-year-old rapper made headlines last month for releasing a video ("Y'all Heard of Me") that was surreptitiously filmed inside the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center, much to the chagrin of prison officials. This came after the rapper recorded a 15-track album, The Truest S--t I Ever Said, while incarcerated at Jefferson.

After recording with his brothers, Master P and Silkk the Shocker, in a mid-'90s outfit called Tru, C-Murder went on to record four solo albums for P's No Limit Records, starting with 1998's Life or Death and ending with 2002's aptly titled Trapped in Crime. Truest, which will be released on Koch Records, drops Mar. 22.

C-Murder is also facing second-degree attempted murder charges in a separate case, in which he allegedly pulled a semi-automatic outside a Baton Rouge nightspot and tried to shoot the club's owner and bodyguard.