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,” said defense attorney Jason Williams. “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 if he’s lying to trick us.”

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.

The prosecution has remained quiet during the entire trial, as opposed to the defense’s constant comments. But Tuesday, a request was made for clarification as to why the district attorney’s office has not said anything.

“The bottom line to all of this is we’re trying to protect this jury from any undue publicity that might affect this jury’s verdict,” said Assistant District Attorney Prem Burns. “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 his fans and his entourage and basically, we aren’t making an appeal to this community. Our appeal is to this jury,” Burns added.

Court resumes Wednesday morning at 9:30.

SOURCE : http://www.wafb.com

On Monday, witness “Marlo Mike” Louding, who had previously confessed to killing Terry Boyd for $2,800 from Boosie, changed his story. According to Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s NBC affiliate, NBC33 , Louding testified that he was not responsible for the 2009 murder. He reportedly claimed his family’s welfare had been threatened by detectives to produce his confession.

Earlier, it was revealed that Louding bears a stomach tattoo of an AK-47, with the text “Yo Boosie Who’s Next?” According to MTV News, Louding had the ink done two weeks after Boyd’s murder.

Outside of the courtroom, an individual with the Twitter handle @dixie_goon225 posted a pair of threatening messages about the trial on Saturday: “I GOT A SNIPER RIFLE FOR HILLAR MOORE WHEN HE WALK OUT THE COURT HOUSE,” he wrote, referring to the East Baton Rouge Parish district attorney.

Another tweet followed: “MAN THEM BITCHES BETTER # FREE BOOSIE BEFORE I SHOOT THAT F***ING COURT HOUSE UP.”

According to NBC33, the Twitter user, Derrick Deandre Green, was subsequently interviewed by police and charged with public intimidation and terrorizing for his social media interference with the trial.

Green reportedly told detectives he was just “fooling around” when he sent the violent messages.

Source: Billboard.com