Bay Area rapper Mac Minister seeks to overturn his conviction for a double homicide.
According to court documents obtained by AllHipHop, Mac Minister will get a new hearing based on a witness recanting his testimony against the rapper. Antione Mouton, also known as Antione Cantrell, now insists he lied when speaking to law enforcement and testifying at the trial.
Mac Minister, whose real name is Andre Dow, has spent 16 years behind bars for allegedly killing Anthony “Fat Tone” Watkins and Jermaine “Cowboy” Akins in Las Vegas.
In July of 2008, he was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Prosecutors say Mac Minister murdered Watkins and Akins in retaliation for the 2004 killing of Bay Area Hip Hop legend Mac Dre. But Dow’s legal team believes he was convicted in large part due to the fabricated testimony of Mouton a.k.a. Cantrell, who has changed his story years later.
“My statements to law enforcement and testimony at Mr. Dow’s trial was false,” Mouton says. “And I made the statements against Mr. Dow because I wanted to receive favorable treatment as a result of my other criminal cases. I believe I was approached by law enforcement in California after the death of Lee De’Nae Laursen because I knew Ms. Laursen and I believe that they may have located my contact information in her phone. After I was approached by law enforcement that is when I began to make the false statements against Mr. Dow.”
Mouton says he didn’t talk to Mac Minister in 2005 or 2006 as he originally testified. He admits he was incarcerated in Georgia on December 5, 2005, which is a specific day he previously claimed they spoke.
The key witness also concedes he didn’t know Mac Minister as well as his testimony suggested.
“I recant my testimony and statements that I am from the Fillmore neighborhood,” Mouton notes. “I did not grow up with Andre Dow as a testified. I am from the Hunter’s Point neighborhood and did not grow up with Mr. Dow. I only knew who Mr. Dow was from his popularity in the music industry.”
Police Seek To Question Rapper Mac Minister In Las Vegas Double Homicide
He adds, “I also specifically recant my testimony that Mr. Dow told me ‘I don’t give a f### about the punk m############ that’s telling on me ‘cause around here m############ would come up missing, like that b####, that b#### n##### that did that s### to Dre’ or that ‘he didn’t give a f### about people that was telling on him or the dumb ass police that was looking for him.’ I made up those statements and that testimony was false.”
Mouton’s sworn statement includes an explanation for why he’s revealing his alleged lies.
“I am coming forward with this information now because it has been on my conscious and I deeply regret making the false testimony and statements against Mr. Dow,” he says.
A hearing for Mac Minister’s case is scheduled to take place on Friday (June 10).