NEW ORLEANS -- A Feb. 5 retrial date was set Wednesday for the man whose 2016 manslaughter conviction in the shooting death of former NFL star Will Smith was overturned because the jury's verdict was not unanimous.
Cardell Hayes, 36, has long insisted he shot Smith in self-defense during an April 2016 confrontation after a car crash.
At his December 2016 trial, he said he fired at Smith, hitting him once in the side and seven times in the back, only because he believed Smith had retrieved a gun from his SUV. He insisted on the stand that he heard a "pop" before he started shooting and that he did not shoot at Smith's wife, who was hit in the legs.