On other days you will know for a fact that Carruth had no idea what was happening, that a walking rap sheet named Van Brett Watkins was furious at Carruth for not putting his money behind a drug deal, and that Watkins shot Adams four times because she flipped him the bird. Trials swing back and forth like this, even before they start. Last year, when Carruth jumped bail and fled North Carolina, many of us reached a verdict. Now, with the last-minute news that Watkins may have two different stories about what happened and why, many of us see nothing but reasonable doubt. But there are things the lawyers know that we don't.
More shocks are yet to come.
Carruth may yet speak in his defense, but he doesn't have to. From Adams we can hear only the words she left behind, her voice on a 911 tape, the scribblings she made before she died. For now all we have are the faces. So you look again. Football players learn to never show pain, no matter how hard the hit.