BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Gerronda Hill's two boys told jurors Friday they saw their mom's ex-boyfriend, Gregory Smith, stab her after she found Smith hiding in a closet of their new home the night of May 4, 2011. Hill died a short time later.

Several jurors also became visibly upset at one point when prosecutors played an audio tape of a 911 call in which you could hear the youngest brother, who was 10 at the time, screaming for help as Smith allegedly grabbed the phone from him.

Prosecutors rested their case Friday afternoon following the testimony of the two boys, now ages 17 and 13, and after getting texts between Smith and Hill admitted into evidence. One of the texts from Smith to Hill states 'til death do us a part. I mean that."

Smith's attorneys are to begin presenting their case Tuesday morning - following the Labor Day holiday weekend – in the trial before Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Bill Cole.

Smith, 36, is charged with capital murder in the course of a burglary and robbery in Hill's death. If convicted of capital murder he could face a death sentence.

Defense attorney Wendell Sheffield told jurors in opening statements that the evidence will show Smith did not intend to kill Hill when he stabbed her after an argument and Hill squirting him with pepper spray. Also, the defense has contended Smith did not break into the house and is not guilty of burglary and robbery.

Hill's sons, who are now 13 and 17, testified that the night their mother was killed, she was fixing the hair of a friend and they were at the woman's house. He said they left about 10 p.m. to go to the home on 47th Street Ensley where the three had lived for about a week.

Smith, who had lived with them previously, was not allowed in the house and was not supposed to have a key, Hill's sons testified Friday.

The two boys testified that when they got home, they went around to the back door because their mother had blocked the front entrance. One boy said their mother had tied the screen door with a rope and the other boy said she had used a charger cord and put a chair against the door to keep Smith out.

When they got inside, their mother immediately began searching the house to look for Smith, the boys testified. Her oldest son said she smelled cigarettes. The younger son said there were beer bottles on the floor.

As Gerronda Hill got to one bedroom, Smith jumped out of a closet, both boys testified. "I heard mom say 'get off me,'" the oldest son said.

As they argued, Hill and Smith came into the living room where they were, the two boys said. "Mom was telling him to leave. He (Smith) said 'why?'," the oldest son said.

The younger son said that at one point their mom pushed Smith and he fell back onto a bag of clothes. Their mom went outside the front door after first undoing the ties she had placed on the door handles, the two boys said. Smith followed her where the argument continued outside, the two boys said.

Watching from a front window and front door the two boys said they saw their mom start walking back towards the house when she turned around and squirted pepper spray in Smith's face. Their mom then ran towards the door. As Smith caught up to her he pulled something from his back pocket, pushed her down on the front porch and began stabbing her, the boys said.

"I think it was a black kitchen knife," the youngest son said. A pathologist testified Hill had a wound to the chest and upper thigh.

After he stabbed their mom, Smith got up with blood on his shirt and went inside to the bathroom, the boys said. The youngest son said he thought Smith was trying to wash the pepper spray from his eyes.

Gerronda Hill, bleeding from her wounds, came into the house, got her car keys and told the boys to get in their car, the two sons testified. The boys got in the back seat. "She told one of us to crank up the car because she couldn't feel her right side," the youngest son said.

About that time Smith came back outside and began kicking the driver's side door and window, the boys testified. The youngest son testified he found his new cell phone in the back seat and dialed 911.

As he was calling for help, Smith used a brick to smash in the side back window on the driver's side where the oldest brother was seated, the boys testified. Smith then climbed most of the way inside the car and grabbed the phone from the younger brother, the brothers testified.

Before getting out of the car and fleeing, the brothers said Smith grabbed their mother's head. Smith told their mother "you blinded me, b----," the oldest son said.

Jurors listened to the 911 call Hill's 10-year-old son placed. The boy asks for police to the address on 47th Street, which is followed by screaming as a dispatcher tries to determine whether it's an Ensley address.

Several jurors cried or were visibly upset when the audio was played. The judge, at one juror's request, allowed the jury to take a break in the jury room.

James Miller, who is in the Birmingham Police Department's technology unit, read aloud text messages he found on Smith and Hill's cell phones.

The text messages showed Hill and Smith had been having a texting argument in the hours before Hill died.

Hill accuses Smith of breaking into her house in one text about midday of the day she died. "Get the f... out of my house," she texts.

That night, Smith texted Hill that he might "snatch the (burglar) bars to get in." Hill replied she is not at the house. He texts back that he wants her to come home and let him inside.

Smith asks if she's going to leave him on the streets in another text.

Shortly before 11 p.m. Smith texts "find you a body guard." Hill texts back "find you one."

Smith then texts at 10:51 p.m. "till death do us apart. I mean that."

By midnight Hill had been stabbed and taken to the hospital where she died.

One of Smith's attorneys, Wendell Sheffield, got Miller to read a few other texts Smith had sent, including a few that he sent to Hill after the stabbing.

Sheffield and defense attorney Mike Shores had fought against Hill and Smith's phones, and the texts, being introduced into evidence.

For a period of months in 2013 the phones could not be found within a secure storage closet at the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office digital forensics unit. Sheffield argued that there wasn't an "effective chain of custody" with the phones.

Deputy Jefferson County District Attorney Julie McMakin told the judge the Jefferson County Sheriff's deputy's examination of the phones – prior to the period in which they couldn't be found – matches what Miller found. That, she said, proves there was no tampering with the phones.

Judge Cole ruled there was a weakness in the chain of custody but part of the chain was not gone.

Deputy Jefferson County District Attorney Joe Hicks is the lead prosecutor in the case.