BATON ROUGE, La. -- A state judge has dismissed the most serious charges against two local rap music executives accused of trying to kill a Baton Rouge rapper in 2005.
District Judge Mike Erwin said on Monday prosecutors waited too long to try Melvin Vernell Jr. and Marcus Roach on charges of attempted second-degree murder, armed robbery and illegal use of weapons in the July 4, 2005, shooting of rapper Bruce "Beelow" Moore.
"The judge threw out the most serious charges. Attempted murder and armed robbery carry mandatory prison sentences," said attorney Lewis Unglesby, who represents Roach.
"When you don't have to face them, you're real happy," he said.
"It doesn't change our position that he didn't commit any crimes at all."
Prosecutor Charles Grey told Erwin he will ask the state 1st Circuit Court of Appeal to review his ruling.
"We disagree with the judge's ruling. We expect a favorable decision from the court of appeal," District Attorney Hillar Moore III said after court.
Prosecutors filed the attempted murder, armed robbery and weapons charges against Trill Entertainment managers Vernell and Roach in September 2005.
They dropped them a year later at the request of witnesses.
Prosecutors again brought charges against the two men, charging them in May with not only attempted second-degree murder, armed robbery and illegal use of weapons but also aggravated battery, aggravated assault with a firearm and possession of an illegal firearm by a convicted felon.
Erwin quashed the original charges from September 2005, saying prosecutors had two years from that date to try Vernell and Roach.
"There was nothing that gave them (the prosecutors) a new time limit," the judge said.
Erwin's ruling means the remaining charges are aggravated battery, aggravated assault with a firearm and possession of an illegal firearm by a convicted felon.
"Marcus and Melvin never possessed any firearms," Unglesby said after court in reference to those charges.
Vernell and Roach, both 36, are free on $350,000 bond and scheduled to stand trial on those charges Aug. 2.
Moore was shot in front of Shop Smart Music and Fashion, a store he owned in Baton Rouge.
He survived the shooting.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
