Prosecutors fight new trial for rapper in teen’s death

GRETNA, La. (AP) — Prosecutors say two eyewitnesses who have recanted testimony that helped convict Louisiana rapper Corey Miller in a suburban New Orleans murder case are not to be believed.

Miller is serving a life sentence. A jury convicted him in 2009 of second-degree murder in the 2002 shooting death of 16-year-old Steve Thomas at a nightclub.

Witnesses Kenneth Jordan and Darnell Jordan have recently recanted testimony identifying Miller as the gunman. The defense is seeking a new trial for Miller, who once performed as “C-Murder.”

The New Orleans Advocate reports that District Attorney Paul Connick’s office argues in new filings that court transcripts and other records refute the recantations of both witnesses and that even their new affidavits fail to support Miller’s claim that detectives coerced their testimony against him.

The two witnesses, who have the same last name but are not related, have both filed affidavits recanting their testimony and alleging coercion by authorities. The affidavits follow the airing of a television show earlier this year in which both backed off earlier statements, according to the newspaper.

Kenneth Jordan told an interviewer that he was lying when he told police he saw Miller stand over Thomas during a brawl at the Platinum Club in Harvey in 2002 and fire a single shot into the teenager’s heart. Jordan added that the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office threatened to charge him with the death of his infant son if he didn’t identify Miller as the shooter. His wife was later convicted in the infant’s killing.

Darnell Jordan also was interviewed on the program and appeared to recant earlier statements.

Amid arguments in filings by Assistant District Attorney Terry Boudreaux: Trial transcripts show that Kenneth Jordan testified he identified Miller to investigators in a photographic lineup, Boudreaux wrote, undermining the allegation now made by the defense that investigators stopped the recording of his interview and gave him pointers.

As for Darnell Jordan, Boudreaux wrote that the security guard testified at trials in 2003 and 2009 that he immediately identified Miller as the gunman to Detective Kevin Nichols, “certainly before any pressure could be exerted on him by any prosecutor or investigator.”

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Information from: The New Orleans Advocate, http://www.neworleansadvocate.com