Torrence “Lil Boosie” Hatch has been found not guilty of murder.

After deliberating for about an hour on Friday (May 11), an East Baton Rouge Parish jury acquitted Lil Boosie of the alleged murder-for-hire plot of Terry Boyd. Upon hearing the verdict, Boosie balled up his fist and held his right arm in the air.

The city’s 19th Judicial District Courthouse was filled with people both inside and outside the courtroom, many of which let out a collective gasp upon hearing the results.

Cars on the immediate Baton Rouge streets surrounding the Courthouse began blaring Boosie songs.

The news of the verdict also became an instant trending topic on Twitter with fellow rappers and fans commenting on it.

Despite the acquittal, Boosie isn’t a free man just yet. He’s still currently serving an eight-year prison sentence on drug charges at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. That being said, Friday’s acquittal does spell a sigh of relief, considering Boosie was facing life in prison if found guilty of first or second-degree murder.

Hatch was accused of paying Michael “Marlo Mike” Louding, then-17, now 19, to kill Boyd, 35, in October 2009 because Hatch allegedly discovered from an inmate that Boyd had planned an attack on him.

However, the jury didn’t see it that way, announcing Boosie not guilty, despite prosecutors presenting the jury with lyrics from the Baton Rouge rapper on Wednesday (May 9). That day seen the prosecution playing a selection of Boosie’s song, “187,” in which he raps:

“Yo Marlo/He drive a Monte Carlo/That bitch gray, I want that nigga dead today.”

Wednesday, Day 5, of the case also saw prosecutors have Constantino Dimitrelos take the stand. Dimitrelos, a forensic IT specialist, examined hard drives taken from Hatch’s computers and deciphered that the rapper had recorded his verse less than an hour before the murder had taken place.

As damaging as that may have been to the defense, Boosie was found not guilty.—Mark Lelinwalla with reporting by Ryan Buxton

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