C-Murder is the stage name of Corey Miller, a New Orleans rapper and younger brother of Master P who rose to prominence on No Limit Records in the late 1990s and has been serving a life sentence without parole since 2009 for the second-degree murder of 16-year-old Steve Thomas at a Harvey, Louisiana nightclub. His case has remained in the public eye because two key witnesses later recanted, the jury that convicted him voted 10 to 2 rather than unanimously, and Kim Kardashian joined a campaign calling for his release. Louisiana courts, most recently the state Supreme Court in February 2026, have repeatedly declined to grant him a new trial.1Fox 8 Live. Louisiana Supreme Court Again Denies Appeal of Rapper Corey C-Murder Miller
The Rapper Behind the Name
Corey Miller is the middle of three Miller brothers in New Orleans hip-hop. Percy Miller performs as Master P and founded No Limit Records; Vyshonn Miller performs as Silkk the Shocker. Together the three formed TRU, short for The Real Untouchables, which began releasing albums on No Limit in 1991. The label went on to sell more than fifty million albums and became one of the defining forces in 1990s Southern rap.264 Parishes. Percy Master P Miller and No Limit Records
C-Murder released nine solo albums. His 1998 debut Life or Death sold over a million copies, and his highest-charting single was the 1999 track “Down 4 My N’s” with Snoop Dogg and Magic.3NME. Who Is C-Murder He helped bring Snoop Dogg to No Limit in 1998, performed with the group 504 Boyz alongside Master P, Silkk the Shocker, Mystikal, and Krazy, and in the early 2000s launched his own imprint, TRU Records.
The 2002 Nightclub Shooting
At about 1:30 a.m. on January 12, 2002, 16-year-old Steve Thomas was shot once in the chest and killed inside the Platinum Club on Manhattan Boulevard in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. A fight had broken out on the dance floor. Two prosecution witnesses, Darnell Jordan and Kenneth Jordan, said Miller stood over Thomas and fired. Other people in the club testified they were there and did not see Miller shoot anyone; some said they were certain he was not the gunman. Miller said he was talking to the DJ when the shot was fired.4Justia. State of Louisiana v. Corey Miller, 10-KA-718
Miller was dealing with other criminal matters at the time. In August 2001 he had turned himself in to Baton Rouge police on an attempted first-degree murder charge after allegedly trying to shoot a nightclub owner who denied him entry.5Billboard. Arrest Warrant Out for Rapper C-Murder He also faced aggravated burglary and aggravated assault charges from a separate Baton Rouge incident and had an open domestic violence case when he was arrested for Thomas’s death.6Rolling Stone. C-Murder Implicated in Killing
Two Trials and a Split Verdict
A Jefferson Parish grand jury indicted Miller for second-degree murder on February 28, 2002. His first trial in 2003 produced a conviction, but a judge threw it out after finding that prosecutors had concealed the criminal backgrounds of some witnesses. The state fought the ruling, and the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the grant of a new trial in March 2006.7NME. C-Murder Initial Conviction Overturned
The retrial began on August 3, 2009. On August 11, a 12-person jury found Miller guilty of second-degree murder by a vote of 10 to 2. He was sentenced three days later to mandatory life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. Louisiana law at that time did not require a unanimous verdict in non-capital felony cases.4Justia. State of Louisiana v. Corey Miller, 10-KA-718
In addition to the criminal case, Steve Thomas’s parents sued Miller for wrongful death. He was found civilly liable and ordered to pay the family more than $1.1 million.8ABC News. Kim Kardashian West Joins Fight to Free Rapper C-Murder
Both Key Witnesses Later Recanted
The prosecution’s case rested on two witnesses, and both have since sworn they lied.
Kenneth Jordan testified in 2009 that he saw Miller stand over Thomas and shoot him, and identified Miller in a photo lineup. He said he had stayed quiet earlier out of fear of Miller’s associates. In a June 2018 affidavit, Jordan stated: “I know that the individual who I saw shoot the gun was not Corey Miller.” He said Jefferson Parish detectives had threatened him with a felony carnal knowledge charge carrying a 10-year sentence after his 2003 arrest in connection with the death of his newborn daughter, and that when he tried to retract his statement before the 2009 trial he was told it was “too late” because the statement was “already in black and white.”9NOLA.com. C-Murder Witness Recants Testimony That Rapper Fatally Shot Teen in Harvey Nightclub
Darnell Jordan, a security guard at the Platinum Club, testified he saw the flash of a gun at the end of Miller’s arm and identified Miller in a photographic lineup on January 17, 2002. In a July 2018 affidavit he too recanted, writing that “C-Murder didn’t do this…I just want to tell the truth & clear my name.” He said detectives threatened him with a 10-year sentence on unrelated charges to force his cooperation and that he was moved from Atlanta to Louisiana before the 2009 retrial specifically to testify.10WDSU. Second Key Witness Recants Testimony That Corey C-Murder Miller Was Gunman in 2002 Killing
Judge Steven Enright of the 24th Judicial District Court denied post-conviction relief on January 23, 2019, calling the recantations “suspect and not reliable.” Enright noted that Darnell Jordan’s trial account had been consistent across the grand jury, the 2003 trial, and the 2009 retrial, and that he had told a detective on the night of the shooting that he saw Miller fire. The judge found no corroboration for Kenneth Jordan’s coercion claims and pointed to factual errors in his affidavit, including the false assertion that he had been arrested in connection with his daughter’s death.11NOLA.com. Rapper Corey Miller Aka C-Murder Is Denied Chance for Retrial in 2002 Harvey Killing
Why the Non-Unanimous Verdict No Longer Helps Him
The 10-to-2 jury vote became central to Miller’s post-conviction case after the U.S. Supreme Court held in Ramos v. Louisiana (2020) that the Sixth Amendment requires unanimous jury verdicts for serious criminal offenses. In Edwards v. Vannoy (2021), however, the Court ruled 6 to 3 that Ramos does not apply retroactively to convictions that were already final, which closed the federal door for people in Miller’s position.12SCOTUSblog. Justices Divided on Retroactive Application of Jury Unanimity Rule
States were free to apply Ramos retroactively on their own, but the Louisiana Supreme Court declined to do so in October 2022, in a ruling that affected roughly 1,500 inmates convicted by split juries, citing the administrative burden of retrials.13The Lens. Louisiana Supreme Court Declines to Grant New Trials for People Still in Prison on Non-Unanimous Jury Convictions Louisiana voters amended the state constitution in 2018 to ban non-unanimous verdicts going forward, but that change applied only to future cases. A 2021 bill to extend relief retroactively was voted down in committee, and a 2024 proposal, House Bill 741, sought to create a new post-conviction ground specifically for non-unanimous convictions.14Louisiana State Legislature. House Bill No. 741
Kim Kardashian, Monica, and the Family Fallout
In August 2020, Kim Kardashian used Twitter to call for Miller’s conviction to be overturned, pointing to the split verdict and the witness recantations. Singer Monica, who had been in a long-term relationship with Miller and was dating him at the time of the shooting, joined the campaign, writing on Instagram, “The fight is about to change because you will not fight alone!”15Good Morning America. Kim Kardashian West Joins Fight to Free Rapper C-Murder Kardashian had helped secure clemency for Alice Marie Johnson in 2018, but the Miller campaign has not produced legal results.
The advocacy also fractured the Miller family in public. Shortly after Kardashian’s tweet, Master P said he would no longer support his brother financially or visit him in prison, calling him “ungrateful” and saying, “I know Kim Kardashian put out one tweet and she’s his angel, which is crazy to me.” Monica told Master P to keep her out of the dispute; he later apologized to her, and his son Romeo Miller said he hoped the family would reconcile.16Revolt. Master P Says He Will No Longer Support His Ungrateful Brother C-Murder Monica and Miller later split, and by December 2023 she said she had not spoken publicly about him in two years, though she still hoped he would secure representation that could win his release.17Vibe. C-Murder Monica Split Response
Where the Case Stands Now
Miller has staged hunger strikes multiple times while incarcerated, protesting conditions at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in January 2018, COVID-19 management at the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in August 2021, and alleged neglect and his own declining health in February 2023. Civil rights attorneys Benjamin Crump and Ronald Haley were brought in to investigate the 2021 claims.18Fox 8 Live. New Orleans Rapper C-Murder Protests Prison Conditions With Hunger Strike
On February 3, 2026, the Louisiana Supreme Court unanimously denied Miller’s latest bid for post-conviction relief, stating that he had “previously exhausted his right to state collateral review” and had not shown that any exception allowed a successive filing.1Fox 8 Live. Louisiana Supreme Court Again Denies Appeal of Rapper Corey C-Murder Miller Miller continues to maintain his innocence, communicating through intermediaries on social media and describing his imprisonment as the product of a “racist Jim Crow law” tied to Louisiana’s former non-unanimous jury system.17Vibe. C-Murder Monica Split Response Absent new legislation making the ban on split verdicts retroactive, his judicial avenues in Louisiana appear largely spent.