The origin and intended recipients of a bunch of text messages, and the crucial question of whether you can fit seventy grand into a shoebox, were the main topics for discussion in the ongoing Murder Inc trial in the US courts yesterday. As previously reported, Irv and Chris Lotenzo 'Gotti' stand accused of laundering money for drug dealer Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff through their then Universal affiliated record label.
First up, the text messages. The prosecution have a stack of text messages allegedly sent between Irv Lorenzo and McGriff, which, they argue, show that they had a close business relationship. One in particular seemingly followed the 2000 shooting of 50 Cent which, as previously reported, the prosecution are keen to make central to this case. Prosecution lawyers claim McGriff arranged for the shooting of Fiddy on behalf of Lorenzo, who had been dissed in a 50 Cent rap. McGriff arranged the shooting, they argue, as a thank you for the laundering services the label chief was providing at the time.
The text message that it is claimed supports that theory comes from Lorenzo's mobile and reads "I love the shit out of you". They claim the label chief sent that message to McGriff thanking him for arranging the shooting of Fiddy. The defence says that the note was written to Lorenzo's wife. There seems to be some problem with proving what numbers different messages were sent to, which aids that defence, though even if it was proven that the message went to McGriff's mobile, presumably the defence would argue it was sent to that number by mistake.
Having resolved little on the SMS front, attention turned to the shoe box. This referred back to last week's testimony from Donell Nichols, the prosecution's last minute surprise witness - a former Murder Inc employee who, the defence claim, has a bit of a reputation for making things up. He claimed last week to have once seen Chris Lorenzo count $70,000 out of a shoebox in used five and ten dollar bills. The Lorenzo defence argued that seventy grand's worth of $5 and $10 notes wouldn't fit into a shoebox, and demonstrated as much in court with a shoebox and pretend money. But yesterday the prosecution presented a 20-year police veteran who said he had conducted his own experiment over the weekend and had found you could, in fact, store $70,000 in a shoe box, especially if it was one of those bigger Timberland style shoeboxes that those trendy hip hop types are sure to have. So there you go.
Finally in yesterday's proceedings, the prosecution called a former McGriff business associate Jon Ragin who testified that the drug dealer had funded his straight-to-DVD movie 'Crime Partners' using drug proceeds. But the defence are sure to question Ragin's credibility as a witness given that he his currently in prison over credit card fraud and possession charges, and he only agreed to testify in return for leniency in his own future parole application.
And so the case continues, with the prosecution keen to return to the gritty details of that 50 Cent shooting, something the defence still claim "has no relevance in this case."