A jury found a New Orleans man guilty of manslaughter after he shot and killed former NFL player Will Smith in 2016.
Cardell Hayes, 36, could face up to 40 years in prison after the guilty conviction. Hayes’ lawyers tried to argue that he shot Smith out of self-defense following a traffic accident that escalated to an altercation in April 2016. But prosecutors for the Orleans parish district attorney’s office said that Hayes had fired needlessly, according to ESPN.
“One gun was fired by one man,” prosecutor Jason Williams said in closing arguments on Friday. The trial had gone on for a week, with jury deliberations taking four hours before reaching a verdict on Friday.
Witnesses said that Hayes, who was driving a Hummer, appeared to purposefully rear-end Smith’s Mercedes in New Orleans. Hayes’ lawyers maintain the collision was an accident. After verbal arguments between the two men, Hayes fired at Smith and his wife, Raquel Smith, after they turned away from him. Smith was fatally shot eight times while Raquel Smith was injured after being shot in her legs.
This is the second time Hayes has been on trial for the shooting. His first trial took place in December 2016, when a jury found him guilty of manslaughter in a 10-2 verdict. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for manslaughter in 2017. A judge denied Hayes’ appeal for a retrial.
Three years after his sentence, the US supreme court ruled Louisiana’s “split-decision convictions” – where a person can still be found guilty even if a jury was not unanimous – unconstitutional. Hayes was one of the 1,300 people who were incarcerated at the time whose guilty convictions were affected by the court’s decision.
After the ruling, Hayes was released from prison and had a new trial scheduled, which was ultimately delayed because of Covid-19. His charges were vacated in 2021 pending a new trial.
Friday’s jury ultimately found Hayes guilty of the same manslaughter charge, though they acquitted him of an attempted manslaughter charge for shooting Smith’s wife.
Outside of the courthouse, Hayes’ family mourned the conviction.
“Any man in that position would have done the same thing,” a member of Hayes’ family said on the courthouse steps, according to NOLA.com.
In a statement, Raquel Smith praised the verdict, saying: “Each time we stepped into this courthouse, we were forced to relive the worst moments of our lives.”
“I can look my children in the eyes and tell them I gave everything in pursuit of justice on behalf of Will,” the statement said.
