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Nancy Grace
Rae Carruth, NFL Star to Prison Inmate
Aired December 20, 2013 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: Tonight on NANCY GRACE MYSTERIES, former Carolina Panthers star wide receiver Rae Carruth. Twenty-four-year-old Cherica Adams was pregnant with Carruth`s baby when she was shot four times while in her car.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: Ma`am, stay with me. Stay with me. Keep talking to me, ma`am.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where was she shot?
911 OPERATOR: She`s pregnant. All I can get out of her is Wessex (ph) Square.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: He went from nearly $4 million a year as an NFL wide receiver to 40 cents a day as a janitor at Nash (ph) Correctional Institute.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She arrived with several gunshot wounds, went into the trauma center, was sent almost immediately to surgery. Emergency surgery was performed, including an emergency caesarean section. The baby was delivered that way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a brutal beginning for the baby of Cherica Adams, to be born prematurely as his mother struggled to survive several gunshot wounds. While both mother and baby were lying in critical condition in intensive care inside the hospital, there was plenty of police activity outside, particularly around this white Ford Expedition, a vehicle that DMV confirms is leased by Panthers wide receiver Rae Carruth. And the tow truck driver had his instructions from police about what to do with Carruth`s vehicle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are y`all getting ready to do here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take this vehicle to the law enforcement center.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Meanwhile, over at Ericsson (ph) Stadium, there was varied reaction by some of Carruth`s teammates to the shooting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you think when you heard?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No comment.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you tell me what Rae was like, as far as you`re concerned?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, I didn`t know Rae that well. I was fine with Rae in the locker room. You know, I just pray that, whatever the circumstances were, that everybody`s OK, and that -- I pray Rae didn`t have anything to do with it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: When I hear the name Rae Carruth, I don`t think NFL -- NFL wide receiver. I don`t think, Carolina Panther. I don`t think football sensation. I think convicted killer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now, police aren`t naming any suspects in the shooting of 24-year-old Cherica Adams and her unborn child, but they say they do want to talk with the man they say has a relationship with her, Carolina Panther Rae Carruth. Police have not arrested or charged Carruth in connection with this case. We`re told he hasn`t been to the police station today, but a vehicle leased by Carruth has.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don`t identify or talk about suspects. Mr. Carruth may have some information that will help us close this case out. We do want to talk to Mr. Carruth for those reasons, but we do not identify suspects.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: According to the police report, Adams was shot several times in her vehicle traveling in southeast Charlotte. She was able to dial 911 on her phone to call for help. The offender on this report is listed as a friend or acquaintance, but police won`t elaborate further than that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can`t go into that right now. It`s too early in this investigation to be able to try to answer that question.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: This is what happened. Rae Carruth had been dating, I guess you could say, Cherica Adams for a long time. Rae Carruth`s family didn`t like Cherica Adams. They referred to her as a "hootchie mama," which is slang for the women, the fans of the NFL players that hang around with them, date them, and try to live off them.
I don`t think that was the case with Cherica Adams. She had been with Carruth for quite a period of time, had gotten pregnant by Carruth and was eight months pregnant with his child, Chancellor Lee Adams. Chancellor is now 14 years old.
But it`s a miracle he`s survived. Cherica Adams is dead from a drive- by shooting. Again, she was eight months pregnant at the time. The bullets that were fired into Cherica Adams narrowly missed the little baby boy that she was carrying, but those bullets did manage to cut off the oxygen and blood supply, and Chancellor was born with a severe case of cerebral palsy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have major breaking news this midday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police have arrested Carolina Panther Rae Carruth in connection with the shooting of his girlfriend, Cherica Adams.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know that Carruth is facing three charges. First, conspiracy to commit first degree murder, also attempted murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle. A key point -- investigators refuse to say whether Carruth was the trigger man in the shooting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The news conference just wrapped up here, police finally breaking their silence in this case, but not giving many details. We do know, though, that something happened late yesterday afternoon, some kind of a break in this case, and that, whatever it was, led police to Carruth`s house early this morning on Thanksgiving Day to arrest him.
Now, they wouldn`t say had this -- what exactly the information was that led them to Carruth this morning. We do know, though, that police are talking with another person. Carruth so far is the only one that is arrested, but it is possible there may come another arrest today.
911 OPERATOR: Ma`am, stay with me. Stay with me. Keep talking to me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s pregnant. All I can get out of her is...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The man who found Cherica Adams riddled with bullets in his front yard, Ferrell Blalock (ph), said he heard Adams tell police she`d been at a movie theater near Ray (ph) Road and I-485. That`s where the Regal Theater operates. Police won`t confirm she was there with her boyfriend, Rae Carruth, but have said they believe the two were out together on Monday night.
We know Adams ended up on McAndrew (ph) Drive. To get there from the Regal Theater is just a three-mile drive straight down Ray Road.
But as she headed down this stretch, down this hill and just near McAndrew Drive, something very unexpected happened. From his back yard you see right here, Ferrell Blalock says he heard repeated popping sounds. What was that? Well, the police report indicates that right out here, another car pulled up alongside Cherica Adams`s black BMW, and somebody opened fire.
Police aren`t saying what kind of handgun was used, but it was fired repeatedly, hitting the driver`s side door and window and Cherica Adams. Moments later, Adams managed to pull off of Ray Road and onto McAndrew Drive. She honked her horn, trying to get help, while at the same time making an anguished call to 911 from her cell phone. Her panicked run ended in this front yard, and there the search for answers as yet unknown began.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: This is what happened the night that Cherica Adams was murdered. Cherica Adams was to go see a movie with NFL wide receiver Rae Carruth. They went to see the movie "The Bone Collector," coincidentally, ironically, in Charlotte that night. And for some reason, it was never really explained to Cherica, she was to go pick up an additional car.
So after the movie, you have Cherica Adams in her vehicle following Rae Carruth in his vehicle, ostensibly going back to his place. There were windy, curving roads as Cherica Adams followed Rae Carruth home that night. And at a certain point, testimony says that Rae Carruth slowed down -- it`s a two-lane -- slowed down, stopped. And at that juncture, when Rae Carruth stops his car with his pregnant fiancee behind him, his girlfriend, another car pulls up beside Cherica Adams.
The shooter is in the rear passenger seat of the car, shoots in to Cherica Adams`s vehicle. He shoots her four times, her kidneys, her liver, her spleen all damaged, all bullet holes in them.
She dies, but she`s managed to be transported to the hospital in time for the emergency room to save the life of her unborn child, Chancellor Adams.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: You know, we often hear about dying declarations, and the case of the murder of Cherica Adams is a textbook example. Before I get to Cherica`s dying declaration, let`s start with the 911 call. She had the wherewithal, sitting in her car after she`s been shot four times, to call 911. In the 911 call, she says her name, that she`s been shot.
They ask what happened. And she says, I`m pregnant by the football player Rae Carruth. He had me follow him. He slowed down. A car came up and shot me, and Rae left the scene. He left me.
So they`ve got that on the 911 call. Routinely, 911 calls are admitted into evidence in front of the jury. Dying declarations, not so fast. There`s a lot of evidentiary hoops have to be jumped through before a dying declaration. That is basically the person now dead pointing the finger at someone, or making a statement that probative or evidentiary just before they die.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After more than a week of refusing to talk with police, Carolina Panthers wide receiver Rae Carruth was arrested at 6:30 this morning at his South Charlotte home, charged with three counts in the shooting of his 24-year-old girlfriend, Cherica Adams, who`s also the mother of his newborn son. What cracked the case for investigators?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Late yesterday afternoon, we had some developments that we came upon and we worked on them throughout the night and were able to make this arrest this morning.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carruth is charged with conspiracy to commit first degree murder, attempted murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle. Police wouldn`t say what, if anything, Carruth said when he was taken to police headquarters or if the weapon had been recovered. As to a motive in the case and who the alleged shooter was, investigators dodged those questions, too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re not going to discuss who might have pulled the trigger. This is all going to have to go to the district attorney, and we can`t discuss the evidence of what we actually knew by talking to the different people we spoke to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police did say they got lots of good information from people in the neighborhood off Ray Road, where Adams was found, and from others in the community. Also helpful were cell phone records around the time of the shooting that authorities subpoenaed from Carruth and Adams.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police say their investigation is continuing and even more arrests could be made.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: In the hospital, Cherica Adams was barely able to speak. Some things she could say, some things she had to write (INAUDIBLE) it got to a point she could no longer speak. This is what was communicated to the hospital staff.
She told nurses and staff that she was pregnant by Rae Carruth, the football player. The night she was killed, Rae Carruth insisted that she follow him to her house. They were driving along. A car pulled up beside them. Rae Carruth stopped. She was shot in a drive-by. Then Rae Carruth, her baby`s father, left her. He left the scene.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THEODRY CARRUTH, MOTHER OF RAE CARRUTH: I just want Rae to know that we`re behind him 100 percent. He is my son.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Theodry Carruth, the mother of Rae, is surrounded by her family on this Thanksgiving Day. She learned early this morning that her son, a star receiver with the Carolina Panthers, was behind bars in Charlotte, North Carolina, on three serious charges. Police say he`s involved in the shooting of 24-year-old Cherica Adams, his pregnant girlfriend. After his arrest, his mom gave this statement.
THEODRY CARRUTH: We`re all very saddened by this unfortunate situation. We ask that when you read the paper and watch the news that you try not to draw conclusions or make any speculations about my son.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She wants to focus on the positive, such as when Rae was a star football player at Valley High School in Sacramento County and how he`s a big hit with kids in the neighborhood.
THEODRY CARRUTH: Rae is a very kind and giving person. He loves kids. You know, if we can say anything about Rae, he loves kids.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After the shooting, she rushed to Charlotte to see her son.
THEODRY CARRUTH: You know, he`s concerned. He`s not saying much, which -- you know, the media is not your friend. So sometimes it`s best not to say anything. So that`s where he`s at with it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She had this message for Rae`s girlfriend and the baby.
THEODRY CARRUTH: And I want Cherica to know that for whatever reason, Rae is not a bad person, OK? I want her and her family to know that, that I did not raise a bad person or a bad man and that, you know, we`re praying for her and the baby, you know, that everybody will come out all right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: When they asked her point blank, Who slowed down in front of you and made you stop, she wrote the word "Rae."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: When Cherica Adams died on December 14th, Rae Carruth was immediately charged with her murder. Almost immediately after he`s charged, Rae Carruth jumps bail. He flees the jurisdiction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It has been four days since Carruth`s arrest, and his attorney reveals very little about the football star`s emotional stability.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was he crying or was he angry?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wouldn`t comment other than to say as good as can be expected on the surface (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carruth entered not guilty pleas in the shooting involving Cherica Adams. Her family is not commenting on Carruth`s guilt or innocence, but welcome the news that an arrest had been made. Attorney Jay Ferguson (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, the general feeling probably is one of relief, but the family`s been trying to make sure that they don`t allow the many distractions that are out there in the situation to get them unfocused on Cherica and the baby.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carruth, William Watkins and Michael Eugene Kennedy face charges of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder and shooting in an occupied vehicle. Bond is at $1.5 million for Watkins and Kennedy. Carruth`s bond is at $3 million, and his attorney is optimistic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I expect a bond hearing, and hopefully, his bond will be reduced at that point.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that what he`s hoping for?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course. That`s what we`re hoping for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Carruth managed to make it 500 miles away. He was found in Wildersville (ph), Tennessee. And this is how he`s found. He`s found cowering in the trunk of a friend`s Toyota Camry. He`s been in a trunk for hours and hours. In the trunk are two large sports drinks, one completely full of Carruth`s urine, the other half full of Carruth`s urine. He`s also found with a lady`s handbag containing $3,900 cash, which he swears is his, and his pants are pulled down around his knees.
yes, Rae Carruth had been hiding out in the trunk of a friend`s car, on the lam, urinating into sports drinks bottles. Who tipped off authorities that they would find him there? His own mother.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said, Mom, I just -- I want them to know I`m going to turn myself in. I just need some time to think, you know? He said, This is my life, and I need some time to think.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rae, don`t you want to say anything about whether you did this or not?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s a lot (INAUDIBLE) people wondering.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) anything to say about Cherica?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you approached Cherica Adams, did you ask her a question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did you ask her?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I asked her what was wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did Cherica respond to your questions?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, she did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was her response?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She said, I`ve been shot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Many people have asked what could possibly be motive for murder in the shooting death of pregnant Cherica Adams. And here`s motive. Now, remember, the state is never required to show motive to the jury. The prosecutor is not expected to crawl into the mind of the killer and make sense of it all. But practically speaking, juries wonder why. So prosecutors normally want to give that motive to a jury, and here`s the motive on a silver platter.
Rae Carruth, as rich as he was -- he was under a $3.7 million contract with the Panthers -- had already fathered several children out of wedlock. He already had gotten three women pregnant. He was under a formal court order to pay $3,000 a month to a little boy. He fathered that baby, that baby living in Sacramento. So he was under that order.
He had had several injuries. He was on tenuous ground with the Carolina Panthers because of those injuries. But already -- in the first year or so, he had already made over a million dollars in, I guess, the first two seasons of play. He still thought he had money problems.
Add to that, he had been sued over the purchase of a home. He had lost about a million dollars in some crazy pyramid scheme he had gotten into. And his teammates ridiculed him about getting Cherica Adams pregnant when he already had gotten three other women pregnant, that she was trying to, quote, "juice him" for money.
So put that in the mix, and that is the motive for murder.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: According to his attorney, Michael Kennedy did not pull the trigger and was behind the wheel, driving one of two cars involved in the shooting of Cherica Adams on November 16th.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was he driving, Mr. Kennedy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Kennedy was in the car. Mr. Kennedy was driving, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where was Mr. Watkins?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Watkins was in the car, as well.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Carruth in the car?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Carruth was not in that car.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In a separate car?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was not in that car.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He says there were a total of four people involved.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There would be at least four people that know what happened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rae Carruth, he says, was the mastermind, the man who planned the attack.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The evidence will ultimately show that Mr. Carruth`s involvement was substantial, probably the highest involvement someone could possibly have without actually pulling the trigger.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: He simply did not want to pay child support to another baby. In fact, the other three women that he had gotten pregnant all said he wanted Cherica Adams to miscarry, that he resented paying child support.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As Rae Carruth left the jail tonight, he was flanked by two large men who seemed to be trying to protect him from the throng of media that surrounded them. He had a calm look on his face, and he never mumbled a single word, although there were plenty of questions being thrown at him.
What did he think about Cherica Adams? Was he involved in her shooting? And where did he get the $300,000 for his $3 million bond? Those are all questions that will have to wait because tonight, Rae Carruth had only one goal on his mind, to climb into this Ford Explorer and leave a free man.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The co-conspirator, Brett Van Watkins (sic) -- he claimed that Rae Carruth had prodded him for months to kill Cherica Adams. I don`t know that I really buy that because if someone asked me to take part in murder for hire, I call the police, but not Van Watkins.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Six News caught sight of Stanley Abraham (ph), who tried to hide his head in his hands after leading police to evidence. That evidence in the paper bag pulled from a drain, shell casings. Sources tell Six News Abraham has said that he wasn`t aware of the plan to kill Cherica Adams, that he was friend of Michael Kennedy, the driver of the gold Maxima used in the crime.
Sources say William Edward Watkins was the shooter. He sat in back. Stanley Abraham was in the front passenger seat. Prosecutors say the plan masterminded by Rae Carruth had Carruth`s car in front of girlfriend Cherica Adams, as the other car with the three men pulled up behind, then alongside, where shots were fired. Abraham now faces the same three charges as Carruth, Watkins and Kennedy, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Van Brett Watkins went along with the prodding. He put up with it. At first, Watkins says that Rae Carruth`s plan was for Watkins to beat Cherica Adams so badly, she would miscarry, but that transformed and morphed into a murder plan. Watkins also says that Rae Carruth`s first murder plan was for Cherica Adams to be gunned down outside of a restaurant, and that Rae Carruth would run inside the restaurant pretending to get help, much like the Robert Blake case.
Watkins says that for a long period of time, he said that he could not get a vehicle to use to pull off the scheme, that he tried to push off the attack on Cherica Adams as long as he could.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn`t rat off my son. I saved my son`s life. And I want people to understand that, you know? I saved his life, and I will not walk around with my head down. I`m not ashamed.
THEODRY CARRUTH: The mother of Rae Carruth sits in her son`s home surrounded by a Bible and pictures of his son, little Rae, and admits that she was the anonymous tip that set in motion her son`s arrest here at this motel in Tennessee.
She says it began with a phone call Wednesday from a frantic woman. Did she know who it was?
THEODRY CARRUTH: To be honest, I didn`t want to know. She didn`t say that Rae was with her or anything like that. She just said, I have a number and you need to call it. Her voice was scared, nervous, and just wanted some help, but was very afraid that the police would come.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carruth says she was worried for her son`s safety, too.
THEODRY CARRUTH: Everybody wants to be the one who caught Rae Carruth. That`s what I was thinking. I didn`t know what they were going to do to my son.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So she says she called one of his bail bondsmen, which set Rae`s arrest in motion. Her only regret is that the owner of the bonding company revealed her as the tipster. She has not yet had the chance to tell Rae herself.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you have ever told Rae?
THEODRY CARRUTH: Yes. I keep no secrets from my son. Now he`ll find out that I did do the right thing, the way he knows that I had to do the right thing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And if she could say one thing to him right now?
THEODRY CARRUTH: Your mom is not a rat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: (INAUDIBLE) 911. Police, fire or (INAUDIBLE)
ADAMS: (INAUDIBLE) I`ve been shot.
911 OPERATOR: You`ve been shot? Where are you at, ma`am?
(END AUDIO CLIP)
GRACE: Her body wasn`t even cold yet before Rae Carruth starts talking.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you going to tell your son, Chancellor, about why his daddy was convicted of killing his mother?
RAE CARRUTH, CHARGED WITH CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT MURDER: I wasn`t convicted of killing her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Masterminding to kill her, Rae.
RAE CARRUTH: You know, when the time comes and I do get to talk to Chancellor, I`ll sit him down and I`ll tell him what happened -- not what the media believes happened, not what Watkins and Kennedy says happened, but what actually happened that night.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rae Carruth met Cherica Adams at a teammate`s cookout in the spring of 1998. According to Carruth, the two struck up a friendship.
RAE CARRUTH: You know, maybe in two, three weeks` time, we saw each other three or four times. And it was -- it totally platonic. There was nothing going on between us, just like a homegirl or a friend or something like that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Still, in the spring of `99, Adams told Carruth she was pregnant and intended to keep the child.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you ask her to get an abortion?
RAE CARRUTH: As much as I (INAUDIBLE) friends. That was as far as it went. To be honest, to be perfectly honest as I can be, there was no conversation. There was no -- you know, I didn`t even know her last name until we went to the Lamaze class.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carruth says he was eager to become an involved father, partly because he gave up on a relationship with his first son. Rae Carruth denies he was part of a murder conspiracy on the night Cherica Adams was shot. He says that a week before the murder, Van Brett Watkins, who had done odd jobs for him, approached him and an acquaintance, Michael Kennedy, with a proposition.
RAE CARRUTH: I hear a knock at the door and go down, and it`s Watkins. And he asked me to grab Mike and took us out to his U-Haul truck, lifted it up. And there was, like, four, five Army duffel bags full of marijuana. He pulls it out, hands it to Mike, offers it to us. And I guess both -- we just -- I said I didn`t want any parts of it and that he needed to move it from in front of my house.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carruth says Kennedy later changed his minds and asked Carruth to lend him money to buy drugs from Watkins. Carruth says he agreed.
RAE CARRUTH: Obviously, now, you know, you say, Well, it`s a pretty stupid thing to do. But at the time, after talking to him about it over and over again, I just really felt like I was just lending him the money.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carruth says he kept delaying the drug deal, which angered Watkins. On the night Adams was killed, she and Carruth had a movie date. Carruth says he, Watkins and Kennedy agreed to meet before the date at a location on Ray Road to complete the transaction, but Watkins did not show up.
RAE CARRUTH: Got back to my house, and Watkins was parked in front of my house with the U-Haul truck. And I got upset. I got out of the car and we argued. I told him that he needed to move the truck from in front of my house and I asked him not to bring it there.
He was upset. I was upset. We said some things back and forth. And the whole time, Kennedy was trying to be the peacemaker and calm us down. I told him that I wasn`t going to do anymore, that I wasn`t going to give him the money, and I headed on into the house.
Mike and I had a conversation. He asked me to at least reconsider it, you know, calm down and go to the movies and think about it, and if I could, call him and let him know if I had changed my mind, and I agreed to do so.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After the movies, Carruth and Adams went to his house, where he made two calls, one to teammate Hannibal Navies (ph) and one to Michael Kennedy. The couple then left for her house in separate cars, with Carruth in the lead.
RAE CARRUTH: Along the drive, we ended up talking. She told me that she didn`t feel like it was a good idea for me to come over anymore. I didn`t ask her any questions about it. I drove on to Hannibal`s house and she headed on home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you`re driving to Cherica`s house because you both decide to spend the night there. And you said -- she said -- she changed her mind.
RAE CARRUTH: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She doesn`t want to do this anymore.
RAE CARRUTH: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was the last contact you had with her?
RAE CARRUTH: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: I guess he trusted his ex-girlfriend and thought she would lie on the stand, if asked, but that didn`t happen. Candice Smith (ph) says that at the hospital, while they were waiting for Cherica Adams to die, Rae Carruth confesses that he had been paying someone over time to kill Cherica Adams, so there would not be any suspicion regarding a large lump sum payment to the shooter.
He said that cops could check his clothes and his car, and they would not find any gunpowder, gunshot residue. He also said -- he also made it clear that he hated Cherica Adams so badly, he wanted her dead. He even said the words, Hey, I can`t get in trouble, can I? I mean, I didn`t pull the trigger.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you feel guilty, then, that your association with these people killed Cherica and harmed your child?
RAE CARRUTH: I feel guilty about none of it. You know, I didn`t have anything to do with it. I didn`t push these people to do it. I didn`t ask them to do it. They`re responsible for their own actions. I won`t take responsibility for something I had nothing to do with.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you have any part in Cherica Adams` death?
RAE CARRUTH: No.
911 OPERATOR: Where`s your husband at?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: Or your boyfriend, the one you said that -- where`s he at?
ADAMS: He was in the car in front of me, and he slowed down and somebody pulled up beside me and did this!
911 OPERATOR: And then where`d he go?
ADAMS: (INAUDIBLE) I think he did it. I don`t know what to think. Oh!
911 OPERATOR: All right, what`s his name?
ADAMS: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Both Candice and a police officer testified that you asked them if there`s a test whether they could tell if any gunpowder or if a gun was fired from your car.
RAE CARRUTH: That`s true.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You asked both of them that?
RAE CARRUTH: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why?
RAE CARRUTH: Well, because I had talked to my agent after leaving the delivery room or the neonatal with Chancellor, and he had told me that the police believed that I shot, you know, my girlfriend. And what other way to prove that I didn`t shoot my girlfriend than for them to be able to have some type of test to show it right then and there, you know?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Candice Smith also testified when you were at the hospital, you pretty much confessed to her. You said that you hit the brakes and you saw the shooters come alongside Cherica and shoot at her.
RAE CARRUTH: Again, that`s not true.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was just made up?
RAE CARRUTH: Definitely made up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You never said that?
RAE CARRUTH: I never said that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anything like that?
RAE CARRUTH: I never said anything like that, and nothing like that happened.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watkins gave a graphic account of the shooting, saying he pulled the trigger five times, and Adams was screaming, drowning in her own blood, and you could hear a gurgling sound. Said Watkins, quote, "I fired one shot, then four more shots, bam, bam, bam, bam."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She wasn`t able to give the 911 operator any information about the car the shot came from, but she told them that Rae Carruth was in front of her in a Ford Expedition, and she was shot and he just left.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The truth of this case is that the shooting of Cherica Adams on November 16th, 1999, had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she was pregnant.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we get to talking. Rae said, Well, tonight, we`re going to do it like this. I`m going to take the girl to the movies. Then after I take her to the movies, I`m going to lead her down Ray Road, in the dark section, something like to the effect that we have now. And either I`m going to make a stop or I`m going to drive into a subdivision and come out, at which time you can come up on the side of her and do what you got to do.
So this night, it changed everything from hitting the baby to hitting her and the baby. So I said, Well, I ain`t bring my gun. He said, No problem. Kennedy going to go pick up a gun. And he gave Kennedy the money right there.
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GRACE: We know that right after Cherica Adams was shot four times -- she wasn`t even dead yet -- Rae Carruth makes his way, he drives on from the scene of the attack to a teammate`s home, Hannibal Navies. He had gone to the movie, it was like a double date, with Cherica Adams and Rae Carruth, Hannibal Navies and his girlfriend. The movie, "Bone Collector," let out that night around 11:45 PM.
At that time, Carruth asked Navies if he can come over later and play some football video game. Navies says, Sure. So when he shows up shortly after the movie lets out, after Cherica Adams has been shot, they tell him to come on in. They are playing video games.
Navies`s girlfriend says that -- this is right after Cherica Adams has been gunned down -- that Rae Carruth is on the phone, talking, he`s cracking jokes, he`s playing video games. He stays in the home. Navies goes to sleep. Rae Carruth`s still there. He leaves around 1:00 o`clock AM, but then comes back almost immediately, saying, Cherica Adams has been shot. Could they give him directions to the hospital.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His plan to murder Cherica Adams and destroy his unborn son was finalized. Kennedy was the driver, Watkins was to be the shooter, and Carruth to set it up, to lead Cherica into the trap and close the trap and to kill her.
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GRACE: In hindsight, many people believe that placing himself at Navies`s place with the girlfriend was a way to try and give himself an alibi for the time Cherica Adams was murdered.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If he had just given us the money, none of this would have happened. Actually, what Van Brett Watkins said was, It was Rae`s fault. If he had just given us the money, none of this would have happened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rae didn`t turn into the subdivision, but he blinked his lights once. He blinked his light again, and then he made a full stop in the middle of Ray Road, and Cherica nearly ran into the back of his Expedition.
At which time, I pulled up on the side -- Michael Kennedy pulled up on the side, and I opened the back window. And the car was stopped. The Expedition was stopped. The BMW was stopped. We stopped on the side of her, and then Abraham said, Pull up some more so my window, the back right side, could be parallel to her window, at which time, I fired one shot and then four more shots, bam, bam, bam, bam.
She was screaming. She was drowning in her own blood. You could hear the gurgling sounds. I looked up to the white Ford Expedition, and I could see Rae looking in his rearview. We had discussed it before, that I was not only supposed to shoot her, but I was supposed to take her possessions, fake a robbery. But I was leery of Michael Kennedy and Abraham, and I didn`t want to get out of the car because I feared that they would leave me there.
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THEODRY CARRUTH: I would say to the victim`s family, truthfully, in their hearts -- and I really want them to search their hearts -- my son didn`t do this. My son didn`t pull the trigger.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now to Charlotte, North Carolina. There`s been a decision in the trial of Rae Carruth, the former Carolina Panthers player accused of involvement and the killing of his former girlfriend. Let`s listen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We the jury return the unanimous verdict as follows, that the defendant, Rae Lamar Carruth, is guilty of discharging a firearm into occupied property, guilty of using an instrument with intent to destroy an unborn child, guilty of conspiracy to commit murder of Cherica Adams, but not guilty of the first degree murder of Cherica Adams.
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GRACE: Rae Carruth was charged with first degree murder, but the jury acquitted him on the top count. He was convicted on conspiracy to commit murder. He got a sentence of 18 to 24 years behind bars. He got credit for the 14 months he was behind bars, awaiting trial, and he gets about five years credit for good behavior.
He`s actually looking at a release date of 2018. It`s not that far away.
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