Man charged in NFLer’s death plans self-defence argument
NEW ORLEANS — One car rearends another on a Saturday night. People argue. It escalates.
Ten or so gunshots later, one driver is dead and the other waits nervously to give his side of the story to police.
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 that help lift the stricken city’s spirits after Hurricane Katrina, and on the team that won the franchise’s only Super Bowl three seasons later.
The accused is a 29-year-old former semi-professional football player named Cardell Hayes.
The owner of a tow-truck company and the father of a five-year-old son, Hayes is described by friends as soft-spoken, even-tempered — hardly the type to erupt into a lethal road rage.
His attorney has been laying the groundwork for a self-defence argument ahead of a trial that opens Monday, but he may face an added burden in Smith’s local popularity and national renown.
Smith’s shooting death is strangely similar to that of Joe McKnight, a CFL and former NFL player shot and killed Thursday in a New Orleans suburb after a road rage incident on a nearby bridge. The man authorities identified as the shooter in that case — Ronald Gasser — has been released from custody with no charges as the investigation continues.
Hayes has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in Smith’s death. Conviction carries a mandatory life sentence. He’s also charged with attempted second-degree murder in the wounding of Smith’s wife, Racquel Smith, who was shot in the legs.
He’s been jailed since the April shooting, unable to make the $1.75 million bond.