C-Murder: Rapper Lives His Lyrics

On the third day of Corey's trial, Tenika Rankins also told the court she had stood on a chair to see what the commotion was about at the Platinum Club. She said she heard Corey tell Thomas, "You don't know who the f____ I am!" to which she heard Thomas reply, "I don't care who you are!" She then said several of Corey's friends, all dressed in black, began punching Thomas and she saw Corey reach under his shirt and extend his arm toward the under-aged youth. Although she didn't actually see the gun, Rankins said she saw sparks fly from the end of Corey's arm where a gun would have been. She said she had no doubt Corey killed Thomas. Rankins said Thomas was standing at the time he was shot, despite testimony from other witnesses that he was lying on the floor.

Inconsistencies in testimony given by prosecution witnesses now began to conflict. Rankins said she saw Corey enter through a VIP entrance and was not patted down for concealed weapons. John Young, a security guard on duty that night, said club policy mandated a weapons search and he was certain Corey had gone through the routine check like all other patrons. Even more glaring, however, was Keshawn Jones' testimony when she was called back to the stand on the trial's third day. She told jurors she implicated Corey because she was afraid the police would jail her for outstanding traffic tickets if she didn't say what they wanted her to say. She then recanted and said she did not see Corey shoot Thomas.

On the fourth day of testimony, the prosecution was dealt another blow when it was revealed that a videotape at the club that might have recorded the murder had been taped over. Club owners Travis Mumfrey, Verrette Johnson and Gerald Harris initially denied Corey was in the club that night, according to Clogher's testimony, but he ventured to guess that they might have been trying to protect themselves from civil liability. Clogher verified that no one who was interviewed that night explicitly fingered Corey as the killer, while admitting that several witnesses came forward that night to say Corey wasn't the killer. Clogher even said that, while interrogating Corey, Corey said he had been talking to the club's deejay when the altercation occurred. However, the deejay, Kirk Edwards, when called in to testify, didn't recall talking to Corey that night.

After this testimony, the prosecutors rested their case.

On the fourth day, Master P came in for his first and only appearance during his younger brother's murder trial, but he was not called to testify for either the prosecution or the defense. Outside the courthouse he told reporters, it was a case of mistaken identity. "It's a shame they're trying an innocent man. There's no way my brother did what they said he did."