CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Court TV) —In a hospital waiting area, while Cherica Adams lay dying from gunshot wounds in a nearby room, Rae Carruth confessed to masterminding her shooting, according to the testimony Wednesday of his former girlfriend.

In the prosecution's most credible and potentially damaging witness testimony to date, Candace Smith, a former stripper Carruth dated while Adams was pregnant with his baby, said the wide receiver admitted his role in the drive-by shooting of Adams while the two stood together in the hospital just hours after the incident.

"He said, 'I can't get in trouble, can I? Because I didn't actually pull the trigger,'" Smith said, adding that Carruth pondered whether they could perform gunpowder tests on his car and clothes to clear him of blame.

Jurors leaned forward in their seats and took extensive notes as the soft-spoken 22-year-old gave her testimony. Smith, testifying under a grant of immunity, claimed that Carruth said he "hit his brakes to slow her car down" while Adams was driving behind him after the two left the movies. According to Smith, Carruth watched as his accomplices pulled up alongside and fired into Adams' car before he drove off. Adams, seven months pregnant at the time of the Nov. 16, 1999, shooting, died nearly a month later, but her baby survived.

The defense has denied Carruth's involvement in the shooting and contends that he and Adams parted ways before the shooters appeared on the scene.

During the testimony, Carruth shook his head several times, and his mother, Theodry Carruth, seated in the gallery's front row, glared toward the witness stand as Smith testified.

Television viewers heard her damaging testimony about Carruth, but they did not see it. Smith's attorneys successfully sought to keep her face off camera, claiming that the former exotic dancer was entitled to privacy. Despite an objection raised at a hearing last week by attorneys for Court TV, Judge Charles Lamm ruled that while Smith's image could not be broadcast, her words could. Those in the courtroom, however, saw a strikingly beautiful black woman with shoulder-length hair and perfect posture. Smith, who now works as a receptionist, wore a black suit and gold blouse.

Smith described Carruth as a "ladies' man" who dated "a million girls," stood her up for dates and then introduced her to other women as "a friend." She recalled a box Carruth kept in his home containing photos of "20 or 30" women he was dating.

She said the relationship continued sporadically even after Carruth told her Adams was pregnant with his child. He was unhappy, she testified, at the prospect of doling out more child support and urged Adams to have an abortion — but Adams was determined to have the baby.

After Adams refused to have an abortion, Carruth said "he would have someone go over and kick her in the stomach and make her have a miscarriage," Smith testified.

Smith also drew an unflattering portrait of Adams, referring to her as a "promiscuous" "gold digger" who Carruth called "that crazy lady." In one incident, Smith and Carruth were on a date when Adams followed the pair from a Panthers game at the Ericsson Stadium to a restaurant, she said.

By Smith's account, Adams, already several months pregnant, interrupted the couple's dinner and summoned Carruth outside to talk. When he didn't return after about 30 minutes, Smith went outside and told Carruth he was being rude and asked him to return to the table.

"You're going to trade one stripper for another stripper?" Adams asked Carruth, Smith claims. Adams reportedly worked as a topless dancer.

Smith shot back at Adams, "You need to talk to Rae on your time, because we're on a date," sparking a verbal argument so heated that a security guard intervened.

On another occasion, Smith became furious when she saw her then-boyfriend, former Charlotte Hornet Charles Shackleford, chatting with Adams at a concert. She chastised Shackleford, telling him to "stay away from that bitch," she said.

Even as Smith's relationship with Shackleford deepened in the fall of 1999, she continued to see Carruth surreptitiously. On the day of the shooting, Smith testified, Carruth called her several times asking to borrow her car, but she refused.

Later that night — about two hours after the shooting, she would later learn — he called Smith from teammate Hannibal Navies' house and invited her to his home. She declined, but agreed to meet him for breakfast. En route to that meeting, Carruth called Smith's cell phone and said he had just received a page from Adams' mother and was headed to Carolinas Medical Center.

Smith met him at the hospital, where Carruth "stated that he wished that [Adams] would die" and confessed to his part in the crime, she testified.

"I just wondered, how could he do something like that," she said, adding that when he swore her to secrecy, she feared, "if I told on him that something might happen to me."

Smith went to breakfast with Carruth after leaving the hospital but refused to take any of his calls after that, she said.

Later that month, when pictures of Carruth's three co-defendants were broadcast, Smith realized that she vaguely knew all of them, she said. Although she did not know their names, she recognized triggerman Van Brett Watkins as a patron of the strip clubs where she worked, and Michael Kennedy and Stanley Abraham as acquaintances of Carruth whom she had met several times.

Smith kept her promise to Carruth to remain quiet about the shooting, she said, until December when she related a portion of Carruth's confession to Shackleford. She was concerned she might be prosecuted for withholding information, and several months later, with Shackleford's help, she hired a lawyer.

Carruth's attorney, David Rudolf, began what will surely be an extensive cross-examination Wednesday afternoon. He played tapes of two interviews Smith gave — one on the morning after the shooting to homicide detectives and a second this January to a private investigator hired by Carruth — but the interviews were brief and cursory and appeared to do little to discredit Smith.

Toward the end of the day, however, Rudolf seemed to question Smith's motivation for testifying. He suggested that she had hoped for a long-term relationship with Carruth and was upset when, after Adams became pregnant, Carruth became distant.

"I was disappointed," Smith said.

"You sort of wanted the relationship to become more serious?" Rudolf asked.

"And so did he," Smith replied calmly.

Also taking the stand was Police Officer Kevin Wallin, who spoke with Carruth as he sat in the hospital waiting room during the hours following the shooting.

It struck Wallin as odd, he said, when Carruth approached him with questions about whether the hospital was surrounded by police. Carruth also wanted to know if his head could be covered if he were arrested and if investigators could detect gunpowder in his car, Wallin said. At the time, there was not even a warrant for Carruth's arrest.

Wallin also overheard him tell Smith that he "thought this whole thing was crazy," and that "when this was over he was going to give up on women."

On cross-examination, Rudolf tried to show the jury that the statements were not suspicious in context, since Carruth had already been told by his agent that police were looking for him.

But the strategy may have backfired on the outspoken defense lawyer because Wallin said before the jury that he "felt it was an admission of guilt."

Briefly testifying Wednesday morning was Police Officer Peter Grant, who said that Adams told him Carruth was responsible for the shooting and that Carruth had slowed his car when the second vehicle pulled up and opened fire.

Rudolf's cross-examination of Smith will continue Thursday morning.