Shackleford, who is married, admitted to a year-long affair with prosecution witness Candace Smith, a former stripper who had also been involved with Carruth.

Wiping beads of sweat from his forehead with a tissue, Shackleford testified that Smith told him that Carruth admitted his involvement in the shooting of Cherica Adams who was carrying the former Carolina Panther's baby.

"She said that he basically confessed to her at the hospital what had happened," he said.

While hearsay — a statement made by a third-party — is generally inadmissible during a trial, North Carolina law allows such statements to be heard by the jury solely for the purpose of corroborating testimony by another witness. In this case, Shackleford's statements are not considered "substantive evidence," but are only supposed to be evaluated to support — or not support — Smith's testimony.

Smith previously testified that she was at Carruth's side as doctors were working to save Adams in Carolinas Medical Center hours after the Nov. 16, 1999 shooting. Adams survived for nearly a month, long enough to tell investigators that Carruth was driving in front of her when another car pulled up and fired into her BMW.

Shackleford, who played for the Charlotte Hornets at the time but has since left professional basketball, corroborated parts of Smith's three days of testimony during 20 minutes of direct examination by prosecutors. Cross-examination by David Rudolf will begin Tuesday morning.

But Shackleford, who appeared more visibly uncomfortable answering questions about his extra-marital affair than the crime itself, offered little the jury hadn't already heard from Smith.

He recounted receiving a phone call from Smith from the hospital, in which she told him that Carruth "had something to do with the shooting of Cherica," that Carruth asked to borrow her truck just prior to Adams' shooting and that Smith said that Carruth didn't want to pay child support.

Carruth's, seated at the defense table, remained expressionless through much of Shackleford's testimony.

Shackleford said he knew Adams "through a friend," but had only met her four or five times — including one incident at rap concert where Smith called her a derogatory name and demanded he not speak to her.

Shackleford said he mistakenly believed Smith was with Carruth when he jumped bail and fled to Tennessee, since Smith was in Memphis at the time.

The former basketball player, who most recently played for the Dallas Mavericks, underwent back surgery two months ago and appeared to have trouble sitting down in the witness chair.

Following yesterday's proceedings, Theodry Carruth, the defendant's mother, said she believes that Shackleford's testimony proves that "Candace Smith had a lot to hide."

"I feel for his wife. One thing you don't want is a husband that cheats," she said.

Smith wrapped up her testimony just hours before Shackleford took the stand. She was grilled by the defense about numerous calls she received from the Mecklenburg County Correctional Facility, the jail where Carruth and his co-defendants are held.

At first, Smith said she had never received any calls from the jail, but she changed her story when Rudolf confronted her with a phone bill showing she had received 23 calls from the jail between August 1999 and August 2000.

"I've never received a call from nobody," she said, before quickly adding, "Yes, I have."

Smith told Rudolf that a man named "Pete" or "Prince" — she could not remember his last name — sometimes called her from the jail. She described him as a friend she met while an exotic dancer and said she was not sure why he was in jail but perhaps "it has something to do with cars."

Rudolf seemed unconvinced, noting that Smith had talked to someone at the jail four times on July 18, the same day Kennedy was interviewed in jail by prosecutors. Smith, however, maintained that she never spoke with Kennedy, Carruth, or Watkins while they were jailed.