BREAKING NEWS: Prosecutors rested Monday afternoon in the Fulton County Superior Court murder-for-hire case of a Mississippi businessman. Defense lawyers are expected to start calling witnesses Tuesday on behalf of Chiman Rai, who is accused of hiring a hit man to kill his son's wife eight years ago because she was black.

A Mississippi banker testified Monday in the Chiman Rai murder-for-hire trial that he didn't believe a key prosecution witness ever picked up $10,000 from the bank that was reputedly used to pay a hit man.

Hyosub Shin/AJC (ENLARGE)

Sparkle Reid Rai's stepmother Donna Lowry Reid (front left), holds her husband Bennet Reid Jr. during testimony on Wednesday.

RELATED: • Trial photos Recent headlines: Georgia State gets grant to study school bullying  Delta flight to Atlanta diverted to Chattanooga  State Masonic group withdraws charges     • Metro and state news

Gary Nowell, who previously ran an AmSouth branch in Jackson, Miss., testified in Fulton County Superior Court that he handled much of the banking for Rai, accused of having his daughter-in-law killed because he disapproved of his son's interracial marriage. He faces a possible death sentence if convicted.

Herbert Green, a business associate of Rai's, testified last week that on Rai's instruction he had picked up $10,000 from Nowell at the bank branch to pay the hit man.

But Nowell, now a senior vice president for another bank, testified there would have to be a bank record for such a transaction to have take place, and investigators have not found one.

"We had to have an authorization of some kind from Mr. Rai to do that," he said. "I just don't think that happened."

Prosecutors expect to rest their case Monday in the trial stemming from the April 26, 2000 killing.

The case baffled police for years until investigators stumbled onto a motive two years ago. Prosecutors contend the 68-year-old Rai, a native of India, wanted Sparkle Rai dead because she was black and a mixed marriage would smear the Rai family name in caste-conscious Indian society.

Sparkle Rai had a baby with Rajeeve "Ricky" Rai, and the two had wed about a month before she was killed.

After police interviewed him in July 2006, Nowell called Rai to tell him about the police visit and to express his concern that the bank may be involved in something illegal. The call was taped by the Fulton County District Attorney's cold-case squad.

"I don't know what to think. I don't know what is going on here," Nowell said to Rai on the tape. "I'm in the dark.... That's why I thought maybe you would remember it."

Rai, who never acted surprised about the call, didn't confirm the transaction.

"I don't want to be involved," Nowell told Rai on the tape.

"You don't need to be involved," Rai said.

Another witness, Willie Fred Evans, testified last week he recruited a hit man, Cleveland Clark, to kill Sparkle Rai on behalf of Green. Green testified that Rai asked him to arrange the killing

Prosecutors offered Green and Evans probation in exchange for their testimony, without which there would be no evidence linking Chiman Rai to the killing.

Green testified last week that he went to the AmSouth branch where Nowell personally handed him a sack of money and that he counted out the $10,000 personally.

On Monday, Nowell said that was ridiculous.

"I don't count money," he said. "I would have remembered that."

Prosecutor Sheila Ross reminded Nowell that in the past he had told police he couldn't completely rule it out, saying he "didn't believe" there had been such a transaction or couldn't remember one.

William Bruton, an expert on money laundering, testified Monday that Rai, who owned several cash-intensive businesses, had several bank accounts that did hundreds of thousands of dollars a month in transactions.

On April 14, Bruton testified, $10,000 was withdrawn from another bank other than Nowell's but the form of the transaction — cash or check — could not be determined.