CHARLOTTE N.C. (Court TV)—Prosecutors in the Rae Carruth capital murder case tried to undermine the defense's portrayal of him as an angel, calling a former neighbor who claimed the football player assaulted him.

"He first caught me off guard, charged at me, grabbed my lapels and he was pushing me backwards," said Donald Kim, who claims Carruth blocked his driveway and then attacked him when he complained.

Kim gave jurors, who have heard glowing testimony about the former Carolina Panther's gentleness and love of children from a dozen character witnesses, a much different and perhaps scarier portrait of Carruth. It's a portrait the prosecution hopes will convince jurors Carruth is capable of murder.

The first-round draft pick is accused of contracting the murder of his pregnant girlfriend, Cherica Adams, to avoid paying child support. During its 12-day case, the defense argued that Carruth was eagerly anticipating the birth of his son and suggested the alleged hitmen acted alone, killing Adams during a botched drug deal.

The prosecution opened its rebuttal case Thursday afternoon, the one-year anniversary of Carruth's indictment, with the testimony of Kim and two detention officers. The officers assailed the reputation of another officer who was a key part of Carruth's case, and Kim cast doubt on the defense's character testimony.

Kim told jurors that on March 21, 1998, his wedding day, he found his driveway blocked by a car belonging to a friend of Carruth. Unsure where the football player lived, he resorted to knocking on doors at random. He testified that when he reached Carruth's apartment, the football player asked him, "What the f--- do you want?"

Kim told him that a car was blocking his driveway and he needed the driver to move it — and that's when Carruth lunged at him, he said. The fracas ended when an unidentified woman inside Carruth's apartment agreed to move the car blocking Kim's driveway, he said.

The incident was not the first in which Carruth and his guests blocked his driveway with their cars in Carruth's former apartment complex, according to Kim.

On another occasion, when he asked Carruth to move his car, Carruth didn't respond, Kim said, but instead flashed him "an unusual grin."

On cross-examination, defense attorney David Rudolf grilled Kim about his own demeanor the day of the alleged physical confrontation. Rudolf questioned whether Kim was really "calm, cool and collected" on his wedding day and already agitated about the friction between him and Carruth over the parking situation.

But Kim maintained that he didn't hurl any profanities at Carruth and that he kept his composure.

"I was fine," he said.

Earlier in the afternoon, prosecutors called two jail officers — detention officer Kimberly Young and facility commander Major Felicia McAdoo — in an effort to discredit their colleague Sgt. Shirley Riddle.

Riddle testified during the defense's case that triggerman Van Brett Watkins confessed to her that he killed Adams in a rage and not, as the prosecution asserts, because Carruth hired him. She also claimed that when she informed her superiors of the admission, they sat on the information.

But the state attempt to "dirty up" Riddle may have backfired Thursday. Although McAdoo, Riddle's supervisor, called Riddle a liar, she had to admit that the nine-year veteran was rated an "exceptional" employee on numerous performance reviews. McAdoo was also forced to confess to some shady behavior herself.

Under cross-examination by Rudolf, McAdoo admitted that she had prohibited the four corrections officers who testified for the defense from wearing their uniforms. Both she and Young, taking the stand for the state, were in uniform.

Questioned by the prosecution, McAdoo painted Riddle as a renegade employee who did not follow protocol. She said Riddle's "inmate-friendly" approach to guarding the jail translated into cozying up to high-profile defendants and pumping them for information about their cases.

She testified that, after she saw Carruth in Riddle's company inside the jail on about three occasions, she transferred Riddle to another shift where she would have no contact with him.

Riddle, she said, had a tendency not to tell the truth.

Rudolf lit into McAdoo for that characterization, asking, "Do you generally keep someone around for nine years and promote them to sergeant if they are a liar?"

He showed McAdoo Riddle's overwhelmingly positive performance reviews and pointed out that because of Riddle's friendly relationship with inmates officials were able to head off two planned escapes and uncover several other crimes.

Rudolf even suggested that McAdoo was one of the jail brass who suppressed Riddle's account of Watkins' confession. He noted that the detention center's internal investigation did not begin until Riddle was subpoenaed by the defense even though McAdoo and others already knew about the incident.

The defense attorney also seemed to brunt the impact of detention officer Young's testimony. She guarded Carruth in December 1999 when he was on suicide watch. Young told jurors that one day Riddle came to Carruth's cell and said she need to speak with Carruth privately. Riddle asked her to "take a break" but not to sign out on the log or record Riddle's presence, both jail policy, Young testified. Young said she thought Riddle's behavior was strange, especially because she was not assigned to the floor where Carruth was held. Young reported the incident, she said, to someone in the jail whom she could not recall.

On cross-examination, however, Rudolf suggested a simple explanation for Riddle's presence. He noted that Carruth had written a "grievance" asking to be taken off suicide watch. Rudolf implied that Riddle might have visited Carruth to explain the procedure.