It’s becoming more and more clear that the shooting death of former Saints defensive end Will Smith is going to culminate in a hotly-contested criminal trial.
On the same day that a lawyer representing Smith’s family held a press conference claiming that Cardell Hayes shot Racquel Smith and Will Smith after an altercation regarding a traffic accident had apparently been resolved and that Will Smith never took his gun from his vehicle, the man representing Hayes conducted yet another press conference suggesting that Hayes was acting in self defense.
“A witness saw the gun in Smith’s possession,” John Fuller said at a press conference outside his office, via Ben Myers of the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Fuller said that this shows Hayes was indeed defending himself.
Fuller also said that cell phone video taken at the scene prior to the shooting has been provided to the New Orleans Police Department.
“It’s going to show that my client is legally not guilty,” Fuller said.
And that’s the most important distinction. Hayes is clearly factually guilty. The question is whether he’s legally guilty.
The dueling press conferences and starkly contrasting narratives confirm that these facts eventually will be sorted out in a courtroom, with a jury hearing testimony, seeing video, and ultimately deciding whether to convict Cardell Hayes of murder.
