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Prosecutors, however, have refused to back away from Sanford's guilty plea. At times, they have acknowledged that Smothers may have been involved but they won't rule out a role for the younger man.
"There is no link between me and him," Smothers told the AP. "I never knew him."
McGinnis has been desperate to get Smothers on the witness stand. He invoked his right against self-incrimination last year but was willing to allow his attorney, Gabi Silver, to testify about what he told her about Runyon Street. The prosecutor, however, objected and courts said no.
"I'll testify if possible and answer all questions truthfully. Anything I will say will be the truth," Smothers told the AP. "I don't lie."
The prosecutor's office had no comment Monday about Smothers' willingness to testify. Silver said Smothers has "always wanted to right this wrong."
"It's too bad that a kid who didn't have anything to do with this crime is sitting in prison. That to me is a tragedy," Silver said.
With short hair, clear face and a thin build, Smothers looks much younger than his 30 years. He smiled often during the interview and expressed dry humor, especially when he described odd jobs – drywall, plumbing, roofing – while a student at Detroit's Kettering High School and later a factory job in Warren.
"You sound surprised," Smothers said of his resume.
He declined to talk about why he became a hit man but said, "I understand people think I'm a monster."
"Over the course of my young adulthood, I developed a hard heart where people didn't matter ... When you grow up in the city there's just certain facts of life," Smothers said.