(née Joseph). They had two children together and he had another child from a previous relationship. Road incident and death On April 9, 2016, Smith was involved in a traffic collision in which a Hummer, driven by 28-year-old Cardell Hayes, rear-ended Smith's Mercedes SUV in an ongoing confrontation that allegedly started with Smith's vehicle accidentally rear-ending the Hummer. The final collision caused Hayes' vehicle to collide with the vehicle in front of him, and was hard enough to break the rear window in the Mercedes. Moments earlier and less than two blocks away, in the Lower Garden District of New Orleans, Hayes’ vehicle had been hit by Smith’s vehicle. Smith's vehicle contained Smith, his wife Racquel, and two unnamed passengers. In the second collision, Smith and Hayes exchanged words, when Hayes fired a handgun, killing Smith and injuring his wife. Hayes was arrested at the scene. During investigation, a fully loaded 9-millimeter handgun was found in Smith's car. Hayes and a passenger in his vehicle claimed self-defense. After an investigation, the New Orleans Police Department charged Hayes with second-degree murder. Results of a postmortem toxicology report concluded that Smith had a blood alcohol content of .235 on the night of the incident, or nearly three times the legal limit in Louisiana. Smith was buried on April 16, 2016. Trial began on December 5, 2016, in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court. On December 11, an Orleans Parish jury found Cardell Hayes guilty of manslaughter in the shooting of Will Smith and attempted manslaughter of his wife, Racquel Smith. On April 20, 2017, Hayes was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the charge of manslaughter, and 15 years for the charge of attempted manslaughter, to be served concurrently. On April 19, the day before the sentence, a judge denied Hayes' motion for a new trial. Three years to the day after Hayes was sentenced, however, the United States Supreme Court handed down the Ramos v. Louisiana ruling, which declared that non-unanimous criminal convictions violate the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. Because Hayes had not exhausted his appeals, he was directly impacted by the Ramos decision, and the decision denying a new trial was reversed on November 19, 2020. On January 11, 2021, the Supreme Court vacated Hayes' conviction, pending a new trial. Because Hayes was initially convicted on manslaughter, he cannot face charges greater than manslaughter in the retrial. References External links