On
January 20, 1974, Rae Carruth, a standout NFL football player who was convicted
of hiring a hit man to kill his pregnant girlfriend, was born in Sacramento, California.
On the night of November 15, 1999, Carruth, a receiver for the NFL’s Carolina
Panthers, and his girlfriend, Cherica Adams, 24, went to see a movie in
Charlotte, North Carolina. Later that night, they each got into their own cars
and began driving to Adams’ home. Carruth drove ahead of Adams, who was in her
third trimester of pregnancy. Shortly after 12:30 a.m., a vehicle pulled
alongside Adams’ car and she was shot four times. Adams called 911 on her cell
phone and indicated that Carruth had somehow been involved in the shooting.
When
paramedics arrived, Carruth was gone. Adams was taken to the hospital, where
her son was delivered by emergency Caesarean section. Adams died from her
injuries a month later, but not before giving statements to the police
implicating Carruth in the crime and suggesting he had slowed his vehicle and
blocked her from escaping the gun shots. On November 25th, Carruth and Van
Brett Watkins, an ex-convict who later admitted to being the shooter, were
arrested and charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree
murder and firing a weapon into an occupied vehicle. Within days, the man
believed to be driving Watkins’ vehicle and another man who was a passenger
were also arrested and charged. Cell phone records indicated that Carruth had
been in contact with the men in the other vehicle around the time of the
shooting. After Cherica Adams died on November 14th, the charges against the
four men were upgraded to murder. At that point, Carruth, who was out on bail,
disappeared and was found a day later hiding in the trunk of a car outside a
motel in Tennessee. Watkins eventually agreed to plead guilty to shooting Adams
and to testify against Carruth in order to avoid the death penalty. During
trial, prosecutors claimed that Carruth had hired Watkins to kill Adams because
he didn’t want to pay child support. Defense attorneys for Carruth claimed he
was being framed for his refusal to finance a drug deal for Watkins. Attorneys
also argued that Watkins had once admitted to shooting Adams not because
Carruth had paid him but because she had made an obscene gesture at him while
his car drove by her. In January 2001, a jury acquitted Carruth of first-degree
murder but found him guilty of conspiracy to murder, shooting into an occupied
vehicle and attempting to kill an unborn child. He is currently serving a
minimum prison sentence of 18 years and 11 months.
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