Testimony In Rapper’s Case Complicates Others

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore says his office will examine the about-face testimony of a key witness in a rapper's trial to see how it affects other murder cases involving that witness and other defendants.
Rapper Torence "Lil Boosie" Hatch was acquitted Friday of paying for Terry Boyd's death in 2009.
Michael "Marlo Mike" Louding, 19, testified that he and Hatch had nothing to do with that killing or any other.
The day Hatch's jury was seated, Louding said he would testify for Hatch, Moore told The Advocate (http://bit.ly/KZz6NC ) on Saturday. Until then, he said, Louding had been considered the key prosecution witness.
Louding told investigators in 2010 that Hatch paid him to kill Boyd, and that he was involved in five other killings. He agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for a sentence of less than life in prison.
On June 4, 2010, a day after Louding testified before an East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury, it returned murder indictments against him and five other Baton Rouge men: Adrian Pittman, Jared Williams, Ryan "Sneaks" Carroll, Kendrick Johnson and Johnathan Rogers. Hatch was indicted two weeks later, as was Reginald Youngblood, also of Baton Rouge.
His May 17 testimony in Hatch's trial means the deal is dead, Moore indicated.
Louding's attorney, Margaret Lagattuta, said, "I'm assuming there's no deal and they're going to prosecute him."
That could put prosecutors in a bind, she said: "You cannot convict someone on their statement alone, particularly in a homicide."
Moore agreed but said his office is moving forward' with the prosecution of Louding and Pittman, the alleged getaway driver, in Boyd's slaying. Pittman's police statement corroborated Louding's, he said.
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Information from: The Advocate, http://theadvocate.com