gan, declared in his opening statement. Only he had a differing view than the prosecution about which players were greedy and unfaithful. It was Raine's then boyfriend and now late husband, James Raine, he said, who conspired with his relative, Alfred "Terry" Everette, to kill Smith on April 12, 2006.
Emma Raine's attorney explained his clientwasin a relationship withJames Raine because he "seduced" her by preying on the vulnerability of a woman who was ignored by an unfaithful husband. Hesponged off her while she was married to Smith and wanted Smithdead for more money, Regan said.
Five years after Smith's murder, James Raine, 37, was found shot to death in 2011 at the"mansion" in Poplarville, Miss., which he shared with his then-wife Emma Raine, prosecutors said. Rodrigue warned the case would get complicated, andasked the jury to follow along.
She said Emma Raine is a suspect in James' Raine's murder in Mississippi, but Regan said Emma Rainehas not been charged or indicted in the case. It's more likely James Raine was killed by a prostitute he met on the road through his on-again, off-again trucking job, Regan said.
After James Raine was was killed,Everette "breaks down" crying to his uncles and cousin, admittingEmma Raine and his adoptedbrother commissioned him to kill her previous husband, Rodrigue said. "'I'm scared to death,'" Rodrigue said Everette told his uncles and cousins. "'They told me to kill Ern
The victim of the decade-old New Orleans murder, Ernest Smith, was the "well-respected" paster of a church with a 500-member congregation, Rodrigue said. His marriage struggled because Emma Raine "had a boyfriend," James Raine.