CHARLOTTE (Court TV) — One of Rae Carruth's co-defendants told jurors Monday morning that he was testifying against the former NFL player because it was the moral thing to do, but also because he hoped that coming forward would help him avoid the death penalty.

"I want the family [of victim Cherica Adams] to know the truth of what happened," said co-defendant Michael Kennedy. He went on to admit, however, his own selfish reason for testifying that Carruth masterminded her murder.

"Of course, I don't want to go to death row," said Kennedy, one of four men charged with fatally shooting Adams in her car Nov. 16, 1999.

Kennedy's surprise testimony has been the dramatic highlight of the former wide receiver's capital murder trial. Kennedy took the stand for the first time last Tuesday and testified without a plea deal. He waived his right against self-incrimination and told the jury that Carruth had a man kill Adams, who was seven months pregnant with his baby, because he did not want to pay her child support. Kennedy drove the ambush car, and another man, Van Brett Watkins, has admitted pulling the trigger.

Carruth's defense attorney, David Rudolf, claims Kennedy is lying and has promised to cross-examine him "until the cows come home." That grilling is set to begin Monday afternoon.

Prosecutors tried to blunt the expected force of that cross-examination Monday morning by allowing Kennedy to tell the jury in his own words about his history of arrests and drug dealing. He was convicted in 1997 and again in 1999 of weapons charges related to carrying a gun in his car. He told jurors he needed the gun "for protection" and pleaded guilty both times.

He also told jurors that before the murder he supported himself by dealing crack.

"I'm not proud of it, but I came here to tell the truth," he said. Rudolf is expected to capitalize on Kennedy's involvement with drugs since the defense claims that Adams was killed during a botched drug deal between Kennedy and Watkins.

Kennedy also said he had rejected two plea deals from prosecutors, explaining in part that he believed he was entitled to a more lenient deal and feared being away from his four children.

"[Carruth] is responsible for all of this. I never killed anyone," he wrote in a letter to prosecutors after the first plea deal.

In that same letter, which Kennedy read aloud, he explained that he had agreed to drive the ambush car because Carruth threatened to have him killed if he did not comply.

"If I would have ignored those threats, I wouldn't be here right now," he wrote.

In other testimony, Kennedy said that Carruth told him prior to Adams' shooting that he was being teased by his Carolina Panther teammates for his relationship with her.

"They were ridiculing him and picking at him because she was a stripper and she was a gold digger and she was trying to juice him for money," he said. Carruth also told Kennedy that Adams had trysted with rapper Master P when he performed in Charlotte.

Kennedy also recalled Carruth, who already had a son by a high school girlfriend, expressing doubts about supporting a second child.

"He would say that he was already paying like $5,000 in child support, and he didn't want to pay another $5,000 in child support," he said.

He also told jurors that Carruth described Watkins as a homeless man who "would do anything for money."