CHARLOTTE N.C. (Court TV)— Van Brett Watkins, the triggerman in Cherica Adams' shooting and a sort of undetonated bomb in the Rae Carruth capital murder trial, took the stand before a rapt courtroom Wednesday morning and pointed the finger of blame — literally — at the former NFL player.

"I did it because he made me do it," Watkins said extending his arm toward the defense table. "He dragged me into something I didn't want to be involved in."

Coming from another witness, the words certainly would have been damning. But from the lips of Watkins, a mentally disturbed career criminal, the impact on jurors was unclear. Defense attorney David Rudolf purposefully gave him lots of leeway to talk and, in his meandering answers, Watkins appeared defiant, unstable and at times, downright scary.

"I can be violent if it's a violent situation," the hulking 40-year-old said at one point in a voice tinged with pride. The court itself seemed to acknowledge his potential for danger, placing three large deputies within inches of the witness stand.

The defense's decision to put Watkins on the stand ended weeks of speculation about whether either side would dare call such an unpredictable witness, but his testimony raised new questions about which side will benefit. Watkins seems to be sticking to the prosecution's story, but if the jury concludes he is lying on the stand, that could help the defense.

Rudolf hopes the jury sees a liar and a seasoned manipulator of the criminal justice system. The defense claims Watkins killed Adams during a botched drug deal, and then scammed Charlotte prosecutors, who were bent on nailing Carruth for the murder anyway, into a plea deal.

Under that plea deal, Watkins avoids the death penalty in exchange for truthful testimony. This truth, at least according to the prosecutors, is that Carruth enlisted Watkins and two other men to carry out a drive-by shooting of Adams, seven-months pregnant with the football player's baby, because he did not want to pay child support.

But the state decided not to call Watkins during its case, and Rudolf wasted no time in pointing that fact out to the jury. Watkins acknowledged that he was supposed to testify for the prosecution, and as if to offer an explanation for the state's decision not to call him, the defense lawyer immediately launched into Watkins' mental history.

Watkins said he was currently taking Thorazine, an antipsychotic, and Sinequan, an antidepressant. Rudolf pointed out that a series of psychologists had diagnosed Watkins with antisocial personality disorder. Rudolf read the characteristics of the disorder — from inability to control impulses to a disregard for the rights of others — from a medical text book. Watkins, with a smirk on his face, admitted he possessed some of the characteristics.

"How about 'a glib superficial charm' — you can be charming, right?" Rudolf asked.

"I can be anything I want to be," Watkins replied.

Rudolf even played a brief portion of Adams' desperate 911 call, suggesting Watkins had no remorse for the pain he had caused her. But Watkins erupted, gesturing toward Carruth and asking, "Do you see all the stuff that he destroyed?"

He later calmed down, placing his hand over his eyes as he listened to Adams' cry for help on tape.

"Every day, every day, I have to live with that and no Sinequan or Thorazine can take that way from me," he said. At those words, Wanda Moonie, Adams' stepmother, rose from her seat in the front row of the gallery and left the court wailing.

Rudolf pressed on, confronting Watkins with the testimony of a sheriff's deputy who heard him say soon after his arrest, "I hope the bitch dies." Watkins admitted saying it, but said he was speaking not of Adams, then struggling for her life, but Carruth.

"That's the bitch," he said, pointing to Carruth. "Your client."

Rudolf spent most of the morning documenting Watkins' long criminal history. At times, Watkins seemed to be almost bragging about his exploits, which included stabbing his older brother and holding his wife hostage with a meat clever. When Rudolf asked if he had threatened to kill a New York City police officer in 1986, Watkins replied, "Two officers." Later when Rudolf asked if he had a bench warrant out for his arrest, Watkins said, "Several bench warrants."

Rudolf repeatedly implied that all these arrests made Watkins a master of beating the system. He pointed out that Watkins' charges were frequently reduced by pleading guilty and cutting a deal with prosecutors, just like he did in the Adams' shooting.

Watkins admitted that he knew "the tricks of the trade" and had conned courts before. He cited a stay at a psychiatric hospital in the Bronx. He was not mentally ill, he claimed, but going to the hospital meant avoiding jail time.

"I manipulated the system," he said.

His testimony was to continue Wednesday afternoon.