CHARLOTTE N.C. (Court TV)— A psychologist hired by Rae Carruth's defense continued an assault on Cherica Adams' deathbed statements against the football player Tuesday morning, telling jurors the shooting victim's memory could have been tainted by others' bias.

Memory expert Elizabeth Loftus testified that police officers, family members and a nurse standing vigil by Adams' hospital bed regarded the wide receiver as a suspect early on and could have passed those suspicions on to the mortally wounded woman through leading questions.

"It could be responsible for a shift in her report toward more culpability or involvement by Rae Carruth," Loftus said.

Dr. Gary Pellom

The defense is counting on the testimony of Loftus and another witness — Dr. Gary Pellom, who testified that heavy medication may have impeded Adams' thinking — to undermine the prosecution's most damning evidence against Carruth: the victim's dying declarations.

In conversations with emergency workers and in notes scribbled at the hospital, Adams, a 24-year-old pregnant with Carruth's child, placed the former Carolina Panther at the scene of the drive-by shooting.

Loftus, however, claims to see changes in Adams' account and said that Adams, perhaps experiencing trauma-induced memory loss, might have adopted others' suggestions of Carruth's guilt.

She noted that, when Adams mentioned Carruth was the father of her child, the 911 operator asked, "So you think he did it?"

"It may have planted a seed in her mind," said Loftus.

Traci Willard

She also read aloud portions of police interviews with Adams' family members conducted the morning of the shooting. Several family members said they came to the hospital after Adams' sister told them over the phone that Adams had been shot by Carruth. A police officer acknowledged telling the first family members to arrive at the hospital that Adams had told investigators Carruth was present during the shooting. And Adams' nurse, Traci Willard, was informed that Carruth was a suspect before she began caring for Adams.

Loftus said this suspicion and knowledge guided the questions detectives, family and Willard asked Adams and may have affected her written answers. She noted that at the crime scene Adams said Carruth "slowed down" in front of her before the shooting. Seven hours later, after she had left surgery and was surrounded by family and police, Adams wrote that Carruth had "stopped" in front of her car and "blocked the front." The psychologist said she considered this change significant.

"That is a change, and in between the changes are a fair amount of suggestion by people with knowledge, people with suspicion and people with knowledge and suspicion, interacting with Cherica," she said.

Loftus was careful to couch her conclusions in "mights" and "coulds." She said she could not say for sure whether Adams' memory was changed by others, an uncertainty the prosecutor Gentry Caudill is sure to emphasize during cross-examination this afternoon.

Even before beginning their cross, prosecutors recorded a victory with Loftus' testimony by keeping out of evidence a statement Carruth made to police. The day before his arrest, Carruth told investigators that Adams was following him down Rea Road the night of the shooting when she suddenly pulled alongside him and said she had changed her mind and did not want him to come to her house. Carruth claimed he drove off, leaving Adams on Rea Road where she was later shot.

Defense attorney David Rudolf wanted the statement and a map police helped Carruth draw admitted into evidence so Loftus could tell jurors that Adams might be remembering this incident when she said Carruth had stopped or slowed down in front of her.

But Judge Charles Lamm agreed with the prosecution that the map and interview were irrelevant to Loftus' conclusions.

Rudolf hinted at the statement anyway, getting Loftus to say that any previous incidents when Carruth had slowed down or stopped in front of Adams vehicle "could be very relevant."

On cross-examination, prosecutor Gentry Caudill capitalized on the chance to remind the jury of Adams' statements, asking Loftus about the victim's powerful words, line by line. He focused on examples that would show Adams was keenly aware of her surroundings — so alert that she was able to guide medics who were lost to her location and recall Carruth's football number.

Caudill also called Loftus' credibility into questioning, asking if she was asked to withdraw from the American Psychological Association, the country's largest psychology organization, due to complaints filed against her.

But Loftus denied the allegation. "That's absoultely false. I was, in fact, begged to stay," she said. On redirect examination, Rudolf gave Loftus the chance to tell the jury her reasons for leaving, which she said was to devote her time to the American Psychological Society which she felt "valued science more highly and more consistently."