NEW ORLEANS – A judge has denied a request to reduce the $1.75 million bond against the man accused of fatally shooting former Saints player Will Smith and set a trial date of Sept. 20. Judge Camille Buras estimated the trial would last two weeks.
The decision came after a morning of testimony that resembled more of a trial than a bond reduction hearing.
An off-duty NOPD officer testified that Cardell Hayes, the man accused of fatally shooting Will Smith, told him the night of the shooting that he got out of his Hummer armed with a gun following a crash.
Officer Christopher McGaw said he was off-duty and not in uniform at the Half Moon bar a short distance from where Smith was shot and killed.
McGaw testified that he heard a crash and at least two men yelling at each other. Mcgaw said he decided to go to the scene to see if he needed to intervene. On the way to the scene he heard gunshots and ducked for cover since he was unarmed.
McGaw said he did not see the shots fired or muzzle flashes, but that he went to the scene and talked to a man he identified as Hayes. He said Hayes told him that he got out of the Hummer armed with his gun after the crash and that at some point Will Smith told him, 'Oh, you have a gun, I have one too.'
McGaw said he did not identify himself to Hayes as an officer the night of the shooting and that he did not read him his rights.
On a 911 call made by McGaw, Hayes can be heard saying that he got out of the car with his gun in his hand. McGaw said Smith replied, 'Oh, you have a gun, I have one too." Mcgaw then testified that Hayes told him, "What was I supposed to do?"
McGaw later testified that he found Smith's body inside of his vehicle. He said it appeared that he was reaching for the glove box. McGaw said Smith's chest was on the console and his hand reaching toward the glove box.
Later on the stand were officer Amanda Williams, the first NOPD person on the scene, and then Detective Tindell Murdock.
Williams testified about arriving on the scene and asking for backup. Williams testified that Hayes complied "100 percent" with her requests. She said he was placed in handcuffs after she saw a gun on the hood of Hayes' vehicle with the magazine removed.
Murdock said officers took a statement from Hayes and that he did ask for a lawyer, but made spontaneous statements after that request.
The tape was played in court. During the tape, Hayes apparently admitted that Smith was unarmed, but said that Smith struck him three times in the head, despite Hayes being armed.
Murdock testified that he saw no evidence of any injury on Hayes.
"It was self-defense," Hayes said in the interview. "I ain't never been interrogated or nothing like this. I ain't never shot nobody."
In part of the statement, Hayes could be heard saying that he told Smith and his group to back up and he said that a woman was trying to pull Will Smith away from the vehicle and the confrontation.
During the bond reduction request phase, John Fuller, Hayes' attorney, brought up Hayes' pastor as the lone witness. It was argued by Fuller that Hayes was not a flight risk and he close community ties. He also said that the case was a 50-50 proposition. Prosecutors said Hayes ramming his vehicle into Smith's at a documented 21 miles per hour and then getting out of the vehicle armed with a loaded gun showed he was the aggressor.
Buras sided with the prosecution and denied the bond reduction.
