A key witness who said C-Murder was responsible for the 2002 shooting death of 16-year-old Steven Thomas has recanted his testimony.
In a sworn affidavit obtained by WDSU News Tuesday, witness Kenneth Jordan revealed that he knew the person he "saw shoot the gun" was not C-Murder, real name Corey Miller. Authorities, Jordan further alleged, convinced him to lie under oath after threatening him with a 10-year sentence for charges not related to the shooting in question.
According to the affidavit, Jordan was arrested in 2003 in connection with the death of his newborn daughter.
"The first time that officers of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office questioned me about the shooting death of Steve Thomas, was after I had been arrested for the murder of my daughter," Jordan said, adding that he was offered leniency in the case if he agreed to implicate C-Murder. At the time, Jordan said, detectives had threatened him with a Louisiana age of consent violation due to the fact that the mother was 16 at the time of the child's birth. Ultimately, the mother was convicted of manslaughter.
After C-Murder's initial second-degree murder conviction was tossed out by a judge in 2003, a second trial in 2009 resulted in Jordan being taken into custody on a material witness bond, at which point Jordan says he told authorities his original testimony was false. Prosecutors, allegedly, then coerced him into testifying anyway.
C-Murder is currently in the middle of a life sentence at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Back in February, his brother—Master P—confirmed a then-in-progress hunger strike at the Angola prison. "He's been locked up for a crime he didn't commit," P said at the time. "Somebody has confessed and they even have footage that they don’t want to put in the case. My brother is no angel and has done a lot of dumb stuff like most. But I love him and I will fight for him to bring awareness to this injustice."
