CHARLOTTE — Jurors in the Rae Carruth capital murder trial got an assassin's-eye view into the shooting of Cherica Adams when one of the former NFL player's co-defendants took the stand for a second day of riveting testimony.

"[Van Brett] Watkins told me to pull up beside her car. So I pulled up beside her car, and he started shooting at her car," Michael Eugene Kennedy testified Wednesday morning, as some of Adams' relatives, sitting in the first row of the courtroom, wept softly. He added, "I heard her screaming."

That account was startling and often difficult for Adams' family to bear hearing. Her half sister, Jhuana Moonie, wailed and left the courtroom as Kennedy described how Adams, seven-months pregnant with Carruth's child, was shot in her car shortly after midnight on Nov. 16, 1999. She died a month later, but the baby survived.

After the end of Tuesday's court session Carruth's lawyer promised reporters that he would expose the Kennedy as a liar by cross-examining him "until the cows come home." But that didn't happen. The prosecution managed to make the direct examination of Kennedy last the whole morning, meaning the jury was sent home for the four-day Thanksgiving recess with his damning testimony fresh in their minds.

Kennedy, along with Carruth and Stanley Abraham, face the death penalty for the murder. Watkins, the confessed triggerman, worked out a deal with prosecutors to testify against Carruth in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. However, problems with his account surfaced prior to the start of trial and it is unclear whether he will testify. Kennedy's decision to take the stand is remarkable because he has no deal with the state for leniency and his testimony can be used against him when he goes to trial.

Kennedy, 25, proved to be a powerful witness for the prosecution. He not only placed Carruth in an SUV at the crime scene, but he also offered corroboration of the prosecution's claim that the motive for Carruth arranging Adams' murder was that he did not want to pay child support. Carruth's lawyers have rejected that motive, noting the football player's annual salary was more than $600,000.

But according to Kennedy, Carruth felt Adams, 24, had tricked him into getting her pregnant.

"He said she set him up," testified Kennedy, who met Carruth through their mutual interest in cars. He said Carruth told him that days after the couple first had sex, Adams brought "baby books" around and a week later, announced that she was pregnant. Suspicious, Carruth consulted a friend of his who was a nurse who explained that Adams may have planned their encounter for when she was ovulating, Kennedy said.

"The nurse had told him that she had got him, that she had set him up," he said.

A paternity test after the shooting confirmed that Carruth is the father of Adams' son, Chancellor.

Kennedy testified on Tuesday that Carruth told him he had paid someone to assault Adams so she would have a miscarriage, but that the person had not yet carried out the beating.

On Wednesday, Kennedy told jurors that on an unspecified date prior to the shooting, Carruth actually gave Watkins tips for when was best to assault Adams. He recalled going to Adams' apartment complex with Watkins and Carruth.

"He pointed out the apartments. At the time, he was saying that he lived there, and that he drove a black BMW and he drove a 3000 GT," said Kennedy. "And he was saying it would be best if he come over at nighttime because it's dark around that area."

"I found out later that he was really Cherica," he said.

Throughout his testimony, Kennedy painted himself as someone who had unwittingly stumbled into a brutal murder plot to ambush Adams as she drove home from a movie. He said that Carruth threatened him into assisting Watkins harm Adams, telling him that he was a part of a plan and would be "next" if he did not help.

But Kennedy acknowledged Wednesday that he took an active role in procuring a gun the night of the murder. He said Carruth gave him $100, and he contacted a friend who had a weapon for sale. Accompanied by Watkins and his childhood friend Abraham, he bought the gun and a box of bullets.

He said the trio parked near the theater where Adams and Carruth were seeing a 9:45 p.m. showing of The Bone Collector, and waited for the couple to emerge. At one point, Watkins left Abraham and Kennedy alone in the car. According to Kennedy, he told Abraham of the plan and Abraham immediately wanted to go home. But Kennedy implored Abraham to stay, saying he was afraid and needed him.

Kennedy said Carruth finally called them to announce that he and Adams were leaving the theater, but the trio did not see him leaving. A short time later, Carruth called again, this time from his house, and said that he and Adams were on their way to her home , Kennedy testified.

This time, they did see the couple's cars — Carruth's white Ford Expedition followed by Adams' black BMW. Kennedy said they trailed the vehicles along a dark road for less than a minute.

"Rae went over a hill then down in a dip. He stopped his car, she stopped her car behind his, I stopped behind her," he said. Kennedy said he pulled parallel to Adams' car and Watkins immediately fired the gun into the car.

When the shooting is over, Carruth, whose vehicle had been stopped just a foot in front of Adams, continued driving and Kennedy drove back the way he had come, he said.

He testified that he, Watkins and Kennedy said almost nothing to each other. He dropped Watkins off along a highway where he had left his truck and drove Abraham to a grocery store where he called for a cab.

About a week later, he was interviewed by police. Kennedy testified that he "didn't tell them everything I knew." He said, for example, nothing about buying the gun for Carruth.

"I left out certain things because I didn't have a lawyer at the time, and I didn't know what to say and what not to say," he said.

On Monday, prosecutors will continue questioning Kennedy about those statements and the defense will begin what will likely be a lengthy grilling of the witness.