Hip-Hop Hopeful Linked to Murder of Basketball Star

New York City prosecutors have delayed their grand jury case against Terique Collins, a 24-year-old aspiring rapper they believe supplied the gun that killed a local high school basketball star.

Authorities allege that Collins -- on parole after serving a year-and-a-half on unrelated drug charges -- was in cahoots with Robert Cartegena and Tyshawn Brockington, the men suspected of killing Tayshana "Chicken" Murphy, a hoops standout from the Manhattanville Houses complex.

Some of Manhattanville's residents are reportedly embroiled in an ongoing beef with people from the nearby Grant Houses, and police believe that Murphy's brother may have been involved in a prior incident. While witnesses claim to have seen Collins give a pistol to Cartegena and Brockington -- both of whom are still on the lam -- the would-be MC maintains his innocence.

"They got my name messed up," Collins said in an interview, according to the New York Daily News. "I didn't give nobody nothing."

Collins admits that he crossed paths with the suspects on the night of the slaying, but he says he was only in Manhattanville Houses to visit his mother and pick up some cash and a sweater.

Despite his past indiscretions, Collins insists he's on the straight and narrow, recording music when not working as a barber in the Bronx or caring for his sick 9-year-old sister.

"It's been stressful," he said, explaining that his mother has had to find other people to watch his sister. "Especially since I know I didn't do anything wrong."

"The people are continuing to investigate this case," Assistant District Attorney Jefferey Levinson said in court on Friday (Sept. 16), and in the meantime, Collins is due back in court on Dec. 1.