CHARLOTTE N.C. (Court TV)— Dropping a bombshell on the defense, a former girlfriend of Rae Carruth testified Friday that the former football player threatened to kill her if she refused to abort his baby.

"Don't make me send somebody out there to kill you. You know I'll do it," testified Amber Turner, recalling Carruth's alleged words.

Testifying as a prosecution rebuttal witness at the end of the trial's sixth week, Turner revealed that Carruth had joked about having his first son and ex-girlfriend killed and that he sent her a letter instructing her about what to say if questioned. He also made it clear to her that he did not want another baby, she testified.

The former Carolina Panther is on trial for allegedly masterminding the murder of Cherica Adams, a 24-year-old pregnant with his child. Prosecutors claim he planned the murder to avoid paying more child support.

"You can't have no kids. I'm not going to have no kids with somebody I'm not going to be with," Turner said, recalling Carruth's words. The attractive young woman, 18 at the time of her pregnancy, got an abortion.

Turner also testified that, before her pregnancy, Carruth made comments about having his son and the boy's mother killed so he could avoid giving her money.

> "Would it be messed up if I had somebody, you know, kill Michelle and my son — or just my son so I wouldn't have to pay her any money?," Turner testified, recounting a veiled joke Carruth allegedly made. "Even if she got into a car accident I could have my son and I wouldn't have to pay her any money."

Carruth had already complained to her of being sued by Michelle Wright for child support after being drafted by the NFL, Turner testified. The couple's son, Rae Jr., was conceived when Carruth went back to his native Sacramento while on break from college.

According to Turner, Carruth talked about "fixing the blood test" as he anticipated taking a paternity test to determine whether Rae Jr. was his son. Carruth expressed doubt that he was really the father, telling Turner that Wright "slept around," Turner said.

But while he paid no child support for Rae Jr. as a college student, Carruth had no problem giving Turner money, she said.

"He gave me a lot of things. He gave me $500 a month. He bought me a Lexus. He bought me clothes," said Turner.

During Turner's testimony, she frequently blurted out answers too soon and rambled beyond the scope of the questions posed to her, causing numerous objections from the defense. Defense attorney David Rudolf huddled at the defense table, speaking with with investigator Ron Guerette while Turner testified.

Turner was still in high school when she began dating Carruth, a senior at the University of Colorado at the time they met. A year later, she had moved to Charlotte to live with Carruth, in his first season as a professional football player for the Carolina Panthers.

"He was telling me we were going to get married," she said.

But after she became pregnant, Carruth told Turner he didn't want another baby with someone he had no plans to be with long-term, she testified.

Despite their subsequent break-up, Turner was by Carruth's side after his arrest, flying from Colorado to Charlotte to see him.

"He told me he was alone, his friends had abandoned him, his family had all left. I was afraid he was going to kill himself," she said.

But when she arrived, Carruth had yet another woman staying with him, and he asked her to fly home earlier than she had originally planned, she said. During her last night at his home, she heard him having sex with the other woman, she testified.

That wasn't her last contact with Carruth, Turner says. In August, she received a glowing letter from him, telling her she was special because she wasn't a "groupie or a kept woman." She deserved a man who would treat her "like a queen," the letter allegedly said.

More important to prosecutors was a list included in the letter outlining what Turner should say if she had to testify. In it, Carruth allegedly told her to say that he was upset about not seeing his son grow up, that he was never upset about paying child support, only that the money wasn't fully benefiting his son. The list also cited incidents in which Wright threatened Turner to get Carruth back, but Turner said she had never even spoken to Wright.

Because Turner was originally on the defense's witness list, it is unclear what prompted her to call Adams' father to get in touch with prosecutors.

As Rudolf began the first few minutes of cross-examination before the jury was excused for lunch, he questioned Turner about an e-mail she sent to the defense lawyer asking whether she should return phone calls by Charlotte investigators.

Although this seemed a mundane topic on the surface, it generated a sarcastic exchange between the attorney and witness.

While Turner agreed that Rudolf said he couldn't advise her because he was representing Carruth, she added that he referred her to a Colorado attorney that he characterized as a "good friend."

Rudolf countered that notion, asking her again if she recalled hearing him call the lawyer his friend.

But Turner wouldn't relent, and even asked Rudolf if he had transcripts of their phone conversation.

"Don't joust with the attorney," Lamm warned Turner. Later, after the jury left the courtroom, a seemingly irritated Lamm ordered prosecutors to instruct Turner to answer the questions posed to her appropriately.

Rudolf warned that if Turner continued her defiant testimony, he might have to take the stand to dispute her account of their phone call — and that would lead to a mistrial.

After the lunch recess, Rudolf called Turner's bluff, producing a transcript of their phone call.

After reviewing the document on the stand, Turner finally admitted that Rudolf never told her he was a friend of the attorney in question.

Rudolf sought to undermine her powerful testimony by getting her to admit that she used student loan money for breast implants.

"What does that have to do with anything?" she asked.

"It's called fraud," Rudolf shot back.

She also admitted to watching bits and pieces of the trial on Court TV, although she knew she was a potential witness. But Turner claimed that prosecutors never told her that potential witnesses could not watch the trial on television.

Rudolf managed to show a different side of Turner's relationship with Turner, portraying her as a woman desperate to hold on to a romance Carruth wanted to end. She admitted that Carruth wouldn't give her his new phone number and that after a post-breakup tryst with Carruth when he happened to be in Colorado, she had to track him down when he switched hotels.

Rudolf also quizzed her about a different picture she had painted of Carruth in a magazine article.

"He never raised a hand at me — or even his voice," she told People in the Jan. 24, 2000, issue. "I've never seen him be angry or violent."