Damn, Damn, Damn....

...I remember shootin' the shit with you in Cal II. "Keep ya head up."



SAVANNAH, Ga. (Court TV) — Sharron "Nikki" Redmond was an accidental
beauty queen who shot and killed her boyfriend when she learned he
was seeing another woman, a prosecutor told jurors during opening
statements Tuesday in Redmond's murder trial.


Redmond, 23, was crowned Miss Savannah in August 2003 when the first-
and second-place contestants declined the tiara. Four months later,
on Dec. 16, when Redmond discovered her boyfriend, Kevin Shorter,
was cheating on her, she went to the other woman's house with a gun
to set things straight, said Chatham County District Attorney Ann
Elmore.


"She had been runner-up once," Elmore said. "She wasn't going to be
runner-up this time."

Prosecutors claim Redmond drove to the home of Rachel Hall, to
confront her about her involvement with her boyfriend of three
years. When Shorter arrived, the state contends, Redmond argued with
him and shot him in the buttocks with a gold-plated semi-automatic
handgun.


Shorter died from the wound three days later in a hospital.


Defense attorney Michael Schiavone portrayed the 6-foot-2, 250-pound
Shorter as a violent abuser of women who was high on drugs the night
he was shot.


Schiavone said Redmond only fired in self-defense because she
believed her boyfriend kept a gun in his car.


During her opening statement, however, Elmore pointed to the path of
the bullet that went up through Shorter's leg and into his genital
area. He said Redmond vindictively shot at her boyfriend "just where
you would expect Lorena Bobbit would shoot."


Redmond is charged with two counts of murder, assault and felony use
of a weapon. If convicted she faces life in prison without the
possibility of parole.


Deadly quarrel


Prosecutors called their first witness Tuesday, Rachel Hall, who
said she and Shorter were engaged to be married.


Still wearing the engagement ring that Shorter gave her and sitting
directly in front of the defendant, Hall described her fiance as
a "big teddy bear," but admitted that he once was arrested for
assaulting her in front of her parents.


Hall told jurors how Redmond, a former high school teacher, came to
her house on Dec. 16, to confront her about the man they both
thought they were going to marry.


Hall said the confrontation escalated when Shorter arrived and start
yelling at the beauty queen. She testified that when Redmond got a
gun and pointed it at Shorter, he ran into a neighbor's yard. The
witness said she was able to calm Redmond down, and Shorter finally
returned to his car to leave.


Then, walking toward her house with her back to the street, Hall
said she heard a shot fired and turned and saw Redmond pointing a
gun from her car window. She said Shorter stumbled toward her in
pain.


"Rachel, the bitch shot me. Call 911," Shorter yelled, according to
Hall.


When the 911 call was played for jurors, Hall's and Shorter's
parents, who were in the courtroom, wept as the victim could be
heard screaming in pain in the background.



Prosecutors also called firearms expert Chris Robinson to poke holes
in the defense claim that Redmond didn't aim at Shorter, but the
bullet ricocheted of his car.

Robinson told jurors that he weighed the bullet that killed Shorter
and found it in such perfect condition that it would have been
impossible for it to have deflected off metal.

"It weighed exactly what it did when it was fired," Robinson
said. "There is no evidence that is consistent with this bullet
being a ricochet."

Testimony is expected to resume Wednesday. The trial is being shown
live on Court TV Extra.