Rapper C-MURDER has been dropped by his legal team ahead of his upcoming murder trial - amid allegations he failed to pay his lawyers thousands of dollars in fees.
C-Murder- real name Cory Miller - was originally convicted of shooting and killing 16-year-old Steve Thomas during an altercation in a Louisiana nightclub in 2002.
His attorney, Ron Rakosky, had the guilty verdict overturned in Louisiana Supreme Court in 2006, after proving prosecutors had expunged the records of several witnesses to boost their credibility, according to AllHipHop.com.
A new trial is scheduled to go ahead in August (09), but the website reports that Rakosky has filed papers asking to be removed as Miller's counsel, claiming the star has not paid him for hundreds of hours work over the past three years.
Miller recently risked violating a court-imposed gagging order by speaking out about the trial, declaring his innocence in an interview with the website: "As the evidence shows, I am innocent!... As my day in court approaches, my family and I pray and are confident I will be acquitted and cleared of all alleged incidents." Miller's murder trial is scheduled to begin on 3 August (09).