Rapper
Noreaga testified Wednesday (Jan. 9) to aid a friend, who is currently on trial
for a triple murder in Manhattan. Noreaga
(real name is Victor Santiago) took the stand in U.S. District Court in Manhattan
and stated that he wasn’t aware of any illegal activities that friend Darryl Henderson
was involved in. Henderson,
along with two members of a street crew called Murder Unit, stand accused of a
Jan. 21, 2002 murder of three people near Yankee Stadium’s Bronx location. Assistant
US Attorney David M. Rody said that some of the victims were stabbed repeatedly
and all of the three people had their throats slit. Noreaga
said that in Hip-Hop everybody isn’t a criminal and that most of the imagery is
prosecution and the DA depicted him as a killer, and a person who did all this
and that’s not who I know," Nore revealed to AllHipHop.com. "I know
him as being a real dude from the streets and a person that I run with. When I
was on tour, he went and got me Kentucky Fried Chicken and Heineken’s and he made
sure there was no bulls**t around me. He was an older individual, he gave me a
piece of mind, so that’s what I went up and told the jury and everybody else."Prosecutors
in the district attorney’s office said that Henderson and the Murder Unit attempted
to rob 30 kilos of cocaine from their victims. Nore defended Henderson and stated
that the man often joined him on tour as an assistant. Nore
also explained that Murder Unit was a rap group, not a drug dealing band thugs.
Unit was a rap group, first and foremost," Nore continued. "I wanted
to invest money, I wanted to invest time, and I wanted to invest in the business
aspect of me and I wanted to put Murder Unit on as a rap group….this is the farthest
thing from a gang, we was straight up a rap group."Henderson’s
defense attorney, David E. Patton, admitted that his client had sold drugs in
the past, but denied that he’s ever killed anybody or been involved in gangs.
