BATON ROUGE (WAFB) – A detective who questioned Michael Louding, also known as “Marlo Mike,” took the stand Tuesday morning in the trial of Baton Rouge rapper Lil Boosie, whose real name is Torence Hatch.
Detective Charles Johnson with the Baton Rouge Police Department testified there was no real reason he did not turn on the recording device for eight hours while questioning Louding.
Louding is the linchpin of the entire case.
He was on the stand Monday and said Hatch wasn’t responsible for the murder of Terry Boyd.
Johnson told the jury Louding’s taped confession of the murder and implicating Hatch as the person who paid for it is the real truth in the case.
While Louding was on the stand Monday, he said he lied about Hatch being involved while he was being interrogated. Tuesday, Johnson and Detective Elvin Howard testified Louding admitted to them his involvement in the murder for hire.
“Honesty is important, number one, number two he is trained to deceive people. Now he’s in court and his credibility is on the line and he lied to trick Michael Louding. Now I’m sure the jury is wondering he lied to trick us,” said Jason Williams, defense attorney.
The prosecution has remained quiet during the entire trial as opposed to the defense’s constant comments. But Tuesday, WAFB requested a clarification as to why the District Attorneys office has not said anything.
“The bottom line to all of this is were trying to protect this jury from any undue publicity that might affect this jury’s verdict,” says Prem Burns 1st Assistant District Attorney. “And because of this, this office just as we would try to avoid a change in venue we have virtually stood mute and we will make a comment at the end of the proceedings.”
“This is not a battle being fought by the media outside this courtroom. They have a very famous, infamous client if you would, and I think they are making a spin to the public and to us fans and his entourage and basically we aren’t making an appeal to this community – our appeal is to this jury,” said Burns.
It will be up to the jury to decide who is telling the truth, but there was one part of Johnson’s testimony that worked in the prosecution’s favor.
He said Louding knew details about Boyd’s murder that had not been released. He also said Hatch was not a suspect until the day Louding was questioned.
Court resumes Wednesday morning at 9:30.
