C-Murder Sees More Confinement

By Josh Grossberg

The rapper formerly known as C-Murder is in the house...again.


The gangsta star, whose real name is Corey Miller, was ordered back into home confinement Thursday, two days after a Louisiana appeals court rescinded a lower court's ruling granting his release from house arrest while he awaits a retrial in the shooting death of a teenage boy.


Under orders from appellate court, U.S. District Court Judge Martha Sassone issued a one-page order reinstating the rapper's confinement, complete with an electronic monitoring device,


"Corey Miller is to be placed on complete home incarceration and is further ordered that he is not allowed to leave his residence at any time" excepting a court date scheduled for later this month, said Sassone, per the New Orleans Times-Picayune.


Sassone initially revoked Miller's house arrest at a July 13 hearing, giving him free rein to cruise around Jefferson and Orleans parishes between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., but barred him from drinking alcohol, going to bars or hosting visitors at his residence.


Her decision to ditch the electronic monitoring angered Jefferson Parish prosecutors, who argued that the hip-hopster should have been sent back to prison for supposedly violating the terms of his house arrest by going out to a restaurant in May and going off the grid for brief periods on 13 other occasions.


They appealed Sassone's order, asserting that Miller, 35, was still a threat to public safety.


In overturning Sassone's ruling, the three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit wrote that Sassone did not abuse her position in dismissing the Jefferson Parish District Attorney's Office's arguments, stating prosecutors failed to present adequate evidence of Miller's violations. However, the panel said she erred by removing C-Murder from the program without first hearing prosecutors' reasons for opposing her order.


In 2003, a jury convicted Miller on second-degree murder charges for allegedly gunning down a 16-year-old boy during scuffle outside the Platinum Club, a Jefferson Parish nightspot, on Jan. 12, 2002.


Sassone later threw out the conviction and mandatory life sentence and ordered a new trial following a revelation that prosecutors withheld key information about witnesses they called to implicate the emcee.


While once again restricting Miller's movements, Sasone kept in place his $500,000 bond. Separately Thursday, the judge also reimposed a gag order on all parties barring them from talking about the case.


A date for the trial has not yet been scheduled.


Faced with mounting legal problems, Miller changed his rap moniker from C-Murder to C Miller in 2005. He hails from a family of rap royalty that includes brothers Vyshonn "Silkk the Shocker" Miller, Percy "Master P" Miller and nephew Romeo.