Rae Carruth's lawyers called another one of his former girlfriends to the stand Monday to counter the prosecution's argument that Carruth wanted to kill his pregnant girlfriend to get out of paying child support. Dawnyle Willard said she spoke with Carruth about becoming a father for the second time several months before his girlfriend, Cherica Adams, was due to give birth. She was shot in November 1999 and died a month later. The baby survived and lives with Adams' mother. The trial is starting to wind down, with defense lawyer David Rudolf telling Judge Charles Lamm that he expects to be finished with his rebuttal witnesses on Tuesday.
Closing statements come next, followed by the judge's instructions to the jury.
Then the panel can begin its deliberations, but a date hasn't been set. Court recessed early Monday after Rudolf told the judge his final witnesses would not be available until Tuesday morning. After lunch Monday, Lamm denied Rudolf's request to bring a newspaper reporter to the stand to testify about comments made by another one of Carruth's former girlfriends, Amber Turner. Last week, prosecutors called Turner to tell jurors that Carruth threatened to have her killed if she did not consent to have an abortion after she became pregnant in 1998. Don't make me send somebody out there to kill you.