Bobby Hoppe, former Auburn football star, testified...

Bobby Hoppe, former Auburn football star, testified that he was trying to get away when he shot and killed moonshine runner Don Hudson in North Chattanooga, Tenn., nearly 31 years ago.

“When I fired, I was not trying to hit him, to kill him. It never entered my mind,” Hoppe said at his first-degree murder trial in Chattanooga.

Hoppe, 53, was indicted last March for the shotgun slaying of Hudson July 20, 1957. Hudson had once dated Hoppe’s sister.

The state contends that Hoppe, then a 22-year-old student at Auburn, shot Hudson because Hudson had beaten his sister, Joan Hoppe Voiles. But the defense says Hoppe killed Hudson in self-defense only after Hudson drove alongside his car at 1 a.m. on a North Chattanooga street and pointed a pistol at him.