Fender-Bender on Sophie Wright Place

At about 11.30pm on 9 April 2016, near Magazine Street in Uptown New Orleans, Cardell Hayes's Hummer and a Mercedes SUV driven by Will Smith, the former Saints star, touched in a minor collision as Smith's party left dinner at the Sake Cafe; Hayes followed, and shortly afterwards the Hummer struck the Mercedes again in the 1800 block of Sophie Wright Place. Both men got out. Hayes fired his .45-calibre Ruger: Smith was killed, and his wife Raquel was shot in the legs. Hayes was indicted for second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and aggravated criminal damage. He claimed self-defence: he said Smith was 'drunk and loaded', was the aggressor, went back to his car for a gun, and that Hayes fired only when he believed he was about to be shot. A holstered handgun was indeed found wedged between the driver's seat and the console of the Mercedes. The State answered that all nine casings at the scene came from Hayes's gun, that Smith's hands tested inconsistent with having fired anything, and that eyewitnesses saw Smith retreating towards his vehicle when he was shot. Hayes also said the second collision was accidental, while prosecutors told the Orleans Parish jury he deliberately rammed the Mercedes and so brought the fight on himself, which under Louisiana law strips an aggressor of self-defence unless he withdraws.