While both sides agreed there was no way of proving that Irv sent or received the message, prosecutor Sean Haran argued that "there's absolutely no doubt that Supreme shot 50 Cent that morning," and that Gotti's message shows his gratitude to McGriff for the shooting.
Prosecutors brought up Jon Ragin, a former partner of McGriff's Picture Perfect Entertainment, to testify. Ragin, who has previously been convicted of credit card fraud and possession of a controlled substance, and is currently facing between 87-108 months in prison, agreed to testify if he was given some leniency in his sentence. During his testimony, he said McGriff funded his DVD "Crime Partners" using drug money.
Ragin discussed several conversations he had with McGriff about 50 Cent, noting that most centered on 50 being a problem since he routinely disrespected Inc. artist Ja Rule on mixtapes. McGriff told Ragin he told 50 to stop targeting Ja and the Inc., but that 50 did not comply, according to MTV News.
Then, on May 24, 2000, Ragin said he was called by McGriff who claimed he had "hurt 50," and later described how 50 was caught as he was leaving his grandmother's house and was shot at close range when he got in a car. While Ragin did not say that McGriff wasn't the gunman, he did say that one of the two men with him had ties to the Inc.
Defense attorney Gerald Shargel, meanwhile, wondered by anyone "in the hip hop world would be interested in 50 Cent being shot," and said the shooting of the rapper has nothing to do with the trial. He felt that given 50's fame, jurors might be prejudiced against the Gottis when deciding on a verdict.
Also during day three of the trial, New York Police Department detective Anthony Castiglia successfully stuffed 7.400 $1 into a shoe box to prove a point to the defense. Last week, the defense accused former Murder Inc. employee Donell Nichols of lying when he said he saw Chris "Jr. Gotti" Lorenzo count $70,000 in small bills from a shoebox. Nichols was unable to fill a box with prop money on the stand, which the defense hoped would help illustrate their point, but Castiglia took the stand Monday to prove that if the bills were fives and tens, the money could easily have fit. Shargel, however, pointed out that no one has testified yet about the size or number of shoe boxes that may have been used to hold the money.
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