NEW ORLEANS (AP) – The man who fatally shot retired New Orleans Saints star Will Smith insisted Saturday that he did so only after a drunken, irate Smith retrieved a gun from his damaged SUV following an April 9 car crash.
“I knew for a fact that I was going to get shot,” Cardell Hayes, 29, told the jury in his second-degree murder trial, adding that he heard a pop that he believed to be a gunshot before he fired. Hayes also insisted he didn’t shoot Smith’s wife Racquel that night. Prosecutors say ballistics evidence shows otherwise.
Hayes’ defense lawyers rested their case Saturday afternoon, setting the stage for closing arguments and the beginning of jury deliberations Sunday.
On the stand, Hayes vehemently denied intentionally running into Smith’s Mercedes SUV moments after the Mercedes appeared to have bumped Hayes’ car. He said he armed himself only after he and his own passenger were accosted by Smith and Richard Hernandez, a passenger in the SUV. Hernandez, he said, wildly stripped off his shirt and took something shiny from his pocket – Hayes said he feared it was a knife.
Smith didn’t initially notice the gun, Hayes said. He said Smith, 34, threw a cup containing some type of alcohol at him and punched him repeatedly. At some point during the fast-unfolding melee, Hernandez alerted Smith to Hayes’ gun, Hayes said under questioning from defense lawyer John Fuller.