CHARLOTTE (Court TV) — The capital murder trial of former NFL player Rae Carruth opened with a bang Monday morning as two of North Carolina's most talented attorneys faced off in dramatic opening statements.

The jury, which must decide whether the wide receiver masterminded the fatal shooting of Cherica Adams, a 24-year-old pregnant with his son, was treated to color-coded timelines and quotes from novelist Alice Walker during more than two hours of openings.

Prosecutor Gentry Caudill, trying his last case before becoming a judge, was brief and poetic. He painted Adams as a wounded heroine who fought to get the truth out even as her life slipped away. He focused on deathbed statements she made to police and medical personnel, telling the jury that "through the evidence, she's gonna tell you Rae Carruth did this."

On Nov. 16, 1999, Adams was seven months pregnant and driving home from a date with Carruth, a wide receiver for the Carolina Panthers, when another vehicle pulled alongside her car and pumped four bullets into her body. She was rushed to hospital where she delivered a son, Chancellor, by emergency Cesarean section. Chancellor survived. Adams slipped into unconsciousness a few hours later, and died the following month.

Prosecutors allege Carruth hired three hitmen to kill her because he did not want to pay child support, but during his opening, Caudill did not mention a motive. Instead, he concentrated on the mortally wounded Adams.

"Cherica Adams wasn't supposed to be an eyewitness to what the defendant had done to her and to her son. She wasn't supposed to, but she did," Caudill said. He compared Adams to the downtrodden main character in Walker's The Color Purple who says that she cannot be defeated as long as she has a voice.

"A voice say to everything, Listen, but I'm here," Caudill quoted.

"When Rae Carruth drove away and left her for dead, she was still here. A voice say everything listen, everyone listen," the prosecutors said.

Defense attorney David Rudolf commended Caudill for a "wonderful" and "emotionally powerful" opening, but took a totally different tack. He bypassed the broad strokes for a minutely detailed address more than twice as long.

Rudolf attacked the state's case on every front, arguing that the prosecution's motive was nonexistent, its key witness a liar and thug, and its version of the crime totally illogical.

Displaying a chart of Carruth's finances at the time of the shooting, Rudolf said his client earned $652,000 annually and could easily afford child support payments.

"Where is the motive?" he asked.

Rudolf told jurors that Adams was killed not by Carruth, but by a drug dealer named Van Brett Watkins. Watkins, the admitted triggerman, was enraged that Carruth would not finance a marijuana deal, Rudolf argued. On an easel before the jury, he wrote a quote attributed to Watkins, "If he had just given us the money, none of this would have happened."

He told jurors that Watkins made the statement to a jail guard a year ago, before Adams died and before Watkins cut a deal with the state to testify against Carruth in exchange for avoiding a death sentence.

"The shooting was the result of anger and rage and violence by Van Brett Watkins after Carruth refused to give him money," said Rudolf. "The truth of this case is that the shooting of Cherica Adams had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she was pregnant."

Watkins, he said, had convictions dating back to 1983, and seemed to enjoy hurting women, while Carruth had a spotless record and was widely regarded as a kind, gentle person. He contrasted Watkins' "anger and rage and violence" with Carruth's concern for Adams and their baby. He was looking forward to the birth of his son, Rudolf said.

On the other hand, Watkins was so malevolent that, as Adams fought for her life in the hospital, he told a jail guard, "I hope the bitch dies."

Using an elaborate timeline, Rudolf walked the jurors through the day of the shooting, arguing that Carruth's actions were not those of a man awaiting a contract murder. He played video games, visited with friends, and got his satellite dish fixed. If the hit was so well planned, he said, why were the hitmen still trying to track down a gun hours before the murder? If Carruth knew that Adams was about to die in an ambush, why did he invite her out for a movie where they would be seen in public together?

At times, Rudolf appeared to be defending his client from the media as much as the state. Several jurors admitted watching coverage of the case before being called as potential jurors, and during his opening, Rudolf referred on numerous times to things the jurors might have heard or read. Specifically, he countered reports that Adams was Carruth's girlfriend. He told jurors that the pair had a brief sexual relationship, but it was never monogamous.

Of Adams' deathbed statements, Rudolf acknowledged that he was stymied.

"I cannot cross-examine the 911 tape...I cannot try to ascertain the specific meaning of a specific word," he told jurors. He suggested, however, that Adams was in shock and pain and under the influence of sedatives when she gave some of her statements.

"When all of that is going on, no matter how much we want to be accurate what we say under those circumstances is simply not accurate," he said.

The state is expected to begin calling witnesses Monday afternoon.