After a week of testimony and deliberation in a murder trial stemming from a 2009 case, jurors in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, found rapper Lil Boosie (born Torrence Hatch) not guilty of a first-degree murder charge on Friday (May 11). The rapper was facing life in prison if convicted.
Boosie was able to beat seemingly insurmountable odds in a murder trial in which he was accused of ordering primary witness Michael "Marlo Mike" Louding to murder Terry Boyd. The 35-year-old was shot to death in his home in Baton Rouge in October 2009.
On the third day of testimony in the Boosie trial, 19-year-old Louding took the stand and backtracked on his previous confession of being hired to kill Boyd. He claimed instead that he had never confessed to law enforcement about the murder, adding that he was with Hatch and getaway driver Adrienne Pitman at the rapper's house on the night of the shooting.
The prosecution came under fire for using Boosie's violent lyrics to incriminate him in the case, even pointing to Louding's tattoo of an AK-47, with the script "Yo Boosie Who's Next?" as proof that the two had conspired. Meanwhile, the defense aimed to paint a picture of Boosie as an artist who let too many strangers into his inner circle without knowing their true intentions.
On Wednesday morning, an IT specialist took the stand to testify about the contents of the Baton Rouge rapper's computer. The expert pinpointed a photo of a tattoo parlor, which was related to the investigation, but no details were given on how his testimony might have affected the case. Throughout the trial, several officers were questioned, including one who revealed that Boosie was not considered a suspect until his name was brought up during Louding's confession.
While prosecutors argued that Louding's admissions and cell phone records were proof that he committed the crime, Boosie's defense attorneys countered that the confession was a lie, prompted by hours of interrogation.
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