"What was I supposed to do?" Hayes is heard asking McGaw, on a recording of a 911 call McGaw had placed at the scene.
Why Smith drove away from the scene of the first, apparently minor accident; whether Hayes intentionally rammed Smith's vehicle moments later; whether Smith was reaching for a gun when he was shot to death — all are issues that will likely be addressed at trial.
Smith,Cheap Jerseys From China, his wife and two friends left a restaurant in New Orleans' Lower Garden District and were heading downtown on Magazine Street. At one point Smith's SUV appeared to bump the rear of a Hummer that had come to a stop on the street.
Hayes has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in Smith's death. Conviction carries a mandatory life sentence. He is also charged with attempted second-degree murder in the wounding of Smith's wife, who was shot in the legs. He has been jailed since the April shooting, unable to make the $1.75 million bond.
The first officer to approach the scene after the crash was an off-duty rookie who had been at a nearby bar. Christopher McGaw has testified that he approached the scene as the argument grew more heated, ducked for cover when gunshots rang out, then approached again, finding Smith slumped across the front seat of his car,Wholesale NBA Jerseys China, one hand extended toward the glove box.
Outside,NFL Jerseys Wholesale, a handful of protesters brandished signs that read, "Free Cardell Hayes." Hayes was wearing a dark suit Monday; he previously had appeared in court dressed in prison orange.
Conflicts settled by gunfire are tragically common in New Orleans, but there was nothing routine about this one: The dead man was retired football player Will Smith, a star on the 2006 Saints team who helped lift the stricken city's spirits with a winning season after Hurricane Katrina, and played with the team when it won the franchise's only Super Bowl three seasons later.
The accused is a 29-year-old former semiprofessional football player named Cardell Hayes. The owner of a tow-truck company and the father of a 5-year-old son, Hayes is described by friends as soft-spoken and even-tempered — hardly the type to erupt into a lethal road rage. His attorney has been laying the groundwork for a self-defense argument ahead of a trial that opens Monday.
Ceravolo was among six officers sued by Hayes after police killed his father, Anthony Hayes,China NFL Jerseys, in December 2005. Police settled the lawsuit in 2011, and the terms were confidential.
Prosecutors also have made much of the fact that Hayes's Hummer had hit Smith's SUV from behind so hard that the rear window shattered.
Ten or so gunshots later, one driver is dead and the other waits nervously to give his side of the story to police.
Jury selection started Monday with about 130 potential jury candidates filing into a New Orleans courtroom. It is expected to be completed by Tuesday afternoon.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — One car rear-ends another on a Saturday night. People argue. It escalates.
Rather than stop, Smith swerved his SUV around the Hummer and continued downtown. Moments later, the Hummer hit Smith's SUV from behind, shattering the rear window and pushing it into the rear of another car — in which more friends of Smith were riding.
Smith had returned to his SUV when he was shot and police said there was a loaded gun in the vehicle. That might help the defense argument that Hayes shot in self-defense, Ciolino said. But it's an argument that could be blunted by the fact that Smith was shot eight times — seven in the back, one in the side — Ciolino added.
Smith's local popularity and national renown could prove to be obstacles.
Who the aggressors were in the ensuing conflict will be at issue in the trial. Hayes acknowledged to at least one police officer that he was armed when he got out of his vehicle. He said he was accosted by an unarmed Smith and others, and that Smith struck him, although police said there were no obvious signs of injury.
On the side of the defense is a toxicology report showing that Smith was legally drunk at the time of his death. Other factors Ciolino cited: "The fact that Will Smith was, by some reports, so loud and belligerent; the fact that the forensic evidence arguably could support that Will Smith was reaching for a gun."
Snippets of surveillance video from near the scene, police statements,Wholesale Jerseys From China<