Rapper Michael Henderson — better known as CTS Luh Wick — was acquitted of murder this afternoon after a three-day trial in St. Louis city.
Henderson, 19, had been accused of shooting 42-year-old Joseph Raymond Shaw in August 2022 on South Broadway. Police said that Henderson was on a mini-bike when he passed Shaw, who was in a Jeep. Henderson turned around and opened fire, killing Shaw, before crashing the motorcycle near Nebraska Avenue. He then allegedly fled the scene on foot.
Defense attorney Terry Niehoff argued in court that Henderson, believing he was about to be shot, had acted in self-defense. He and three of his friends were riding the mini-bikes up and down Broadway when the Jeep started chasing them. The rapper testified that the passenger in the Jeep with Shaw pointed a gun at Henderson and that he'd heard gunshots before opening fire in return. A pistol was recovered by police from the Jeep.
Niehoff says that the pistol found in the Jeep had been modified to shoot two bullets with each pull of the trigger and that when police recovered it, they found eight spent shell casings inside. It had been recently fired.
In what was likely a serious blow for the prosecution, the lead detective on the case seemed unaware that the gun had recently been fired when he took the stand.
"I asked him, ‘When did you learn that there were eight spent shell casings in the revolver found in the Jeep?'" Niehoff says. "And his answer was, 'I didn't know that.'"
"The state had a terrible case," Niehoff adds.
The Jeep's passenger did not testify, presumably because prosecutors could not locate him.
The jury delivered the not guilty verdict this afternoon approximately two and a half hours after closing arguments this morning.
Henderson's music videos, like one for "Smash," which has more than a million views, heavily feature firearms being brandished by Henderson and those around him.
Prosecutors said that some of Henderson's lyrics were tantamount to a confession, but on the stand Henderson said he'd written and posted those lyrics to Instagram six months before the incident on South Broadway.
Henderson had been in the City Justice Center since his arrest in October 2022. He left the court today to be processed out of the facility.
"He was so happy he wept," Niehoff says.
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