Posted on Jan 20, 2018
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Rae Carruth, the pro football player convicted of hiring someone to kill his pregnant girlfriend, was born on this day 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, Chancellor Lee Adams, 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 25, 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 14, 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.
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, Chancellor Lee Adams, 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 25, 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 14, 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.
Football player-turned-murderer born - Jan 20, 1974 - HISTORY.com
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Thanks TSgt Joe C. for letting us know that on January 20, 1974 future pro football player Rae Carruth was born on this day in Sacramento, California.
In 1999 he conspired to hire someone to kill his pregnant girlfriend Cherica Adams, and the attempt was made on November 15, 1999. Sadly she died from her injuries after being shot.
Image: Cherica Adams
Background:
The sad whistle of a freight train greeted 1,300 mourners as they filed out of the Victory Christian Center church yesterday, after the funeral for Cherica Adams. A few hours later, not far from the church, the Panthers played a game against the 49ers at Ericsson Stadium. Rae Carruth, once Adams' lover and a highly regarded receiver for the Panthers, was at neither. He sat in a Tennessee jail while Charlotte police worked to have him returned this week to face a first-degree murder charge. Friends and family eulogized and buried Adams, 24, yesterday, and prayed for her baby boy, Chancellor Lee Adams, delivered by Caesarean section Nov. 16, the night she was shot. The baby, born 10 1/2 weeks prematurely, is in fair condition at Carolina Medical Center, where his mother died Tuesday. Authorities say Carruth, believed to be the boy's father, instigated the plot to murder Adams, his pregnant girlfriend, who was struck in the neck and chest by four bullets fired from a passing car as she drove through a southeast Charlotte neighborhood. Prosecutors have said Carruth was in a car near the shooting, and three other men were in a separate vehicle talking with him by cell phone. Carruth, William Watkins, 44, Michael Kennedy, 24, and Stanley Abraham, 19, all face first-degree murder and other charges and are being held without bond. Prosecutors said they intend to seek the death penalty. Adams rented a two-bedroom apartment at 4200 Dunbarton Place, part of a tree-lined community on the best side of town. The apartment was dark and empty late last week. No furniture could be seen through the blinds and no one in the neighborhood admitted knowing its famous last resident. She was on her way home after seeing a movie with Carruth when, authorities say, she fell behind a car driven by the football player. A second vehicle, with three men in it, pulled up and four shots hit Adams. Somehow, she slowed her BMW, managed to place a 911 call, and drove up on the lawn of a nearby home. There were few references to the shooting during the 90-minute "celebration service" for Adams before a standing room-only crowd, but the ones that were made reflected a community in shock. "We need a higher purpose in life," the Rev. Robyn Gool said. "If you can blow somebody away, so to speak, a pregnant woman, you need a higher premium.
" The Adamses asked the media not to disturb the prayers of a community with questions about a crime that shocked the nation. But it's difficult not to ask "Why?
" How could a star athlete, a young man earning millions of dollars playing a game he loves, an intelligent guy who was an academic standout at the University of Colorado, plan such a heinous crime, as the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have charged? Carruth, 25, was already paying $3,000 a month in child support to former girlfriend Michelle Wright, the mother of his 5-year-old son. Saundra Adams, Cherica's mother, also said Carruth had talked to Cherica about an abortion. He later seemed excited about the baby, but the wide receiver - sidelined much of this season with a sprained ankle - also worried about money. "He seemed to be more pressured after his injury more pressured about money and how much the baby was going to cost him," she told The Associated Press. Still, many people who know Carruth say they've never seen a violent streak in him. "This is a shock," said Dave Hoskins, Carruth's football coach at Sacramento's Valley High School, who described Carruth as a talented, driven kid, a practical joker. "I can't associate the person I'm hearing about with the person I knew.
" Carruth had been going out with Adams for about a year. There was talk of a breakup, but Adams' cousin, Michael Edwards, said Adams was delighted to be pregnant. Pretty enough to be a model while in high school, Adams - known as Cookie - became a successful real estate agent. She hung out with "an upscale type of crowd, very well known," said longtime friend Kia Quick, one of the friends who eulogized Adams. Other speakers called Adams a hard worker who looked forward to the birth of her first child. "Don't worry about Chancellor," Denise McManus, her former manager at a real estate office, said as she fought back tears. "He'll be taken care of. And he'll be told about his mother's strength and love.
" As a football player, Carruth could run the 40 in 4.
17. But the FBI caught him from behind - in the trunk of a Toyota Camry, where he had been hiding for 105 minutes, outside a motel in Wildersville, Tenn., 505 miles west of here. Carruth may have done for the Camry what O."
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/sports/tears-flow-cherica-family-mourns-adams-carruth-sits-jail-article-1.850377
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC Wayne Brandon LTC Bill Koski Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown Maj Marty Hogan MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell SSgt Robert Marx PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SPC Margaret Higgins MSgt Jason McClish AN Christopher Crayne SPC Tom DeSmet SGT Charles H. Hawes SGT (Join to see)
In 1999 he conspired to hire someone to kill his pregnant girlfriend Cherica Adams, and the attempt was made on November 15, 1999. Sadly she died from her injuries after being shot.
Image: Cherica Adams
Background:
The sad whistle of a freight train greeted 1,300 mourners as they filed out of the Victory Christian Center church yesterday, after the funeral for Cherica Adams. A few hours later, not far from the church, the Panthers played a game against the 49ers at Ericsson Stadium. Rae Carruth, once Adams' lover and a highly regarded receiver for the Panthers, was at neither. He sat in a Tennessee jail while Charlotte police worked to have him returned this week to face a first-degree murder charge. Friends and family eulogized and buried Adams, 24, yesterday, and prayed for her baby boy, Chancellor Lee Adams, delivered by Caesarean section Nov. 16, the night she was shot. The baby, born 10 1/2 weeks prematurely, is in fair condition at Carolina Medical Center, where his mother died Tuesday. Authorities say Carruth, believed to be the boy's father, instigated the plot to murder Adams, his pregnant girlfriend, who was struck in the neck and chest by four bullets fired from a passing car as she drove through a southeast Charlotte neighborhood. Prosecutors have said Carruth was in a car near the shooting, and three other men were in a separate vehicle talking with him by cell phone. Carruth, William Watkins, 44, Michael Kennedy, 24, and Stanley Abraham, 19, all face first-degree murder and other charges and are being held without bond. Prosecutors said they intend to seek the death penalty. Adams rented a two-bedroom apartment at 4200 Dunbarton Place, part of a tree-lined community on the best side of town. The apartment was dark and empty late last week. No furniture could be seen through the blinds and no one in the neighborhood admitted knowing its famous last resident. She was on her way home after seeing a movie with Carruth when, authorities say, she fell behind a car driven by the football player. A second vehicle, with three men in it, pulled up and four shots hit Adams. Somehow, she slowed her BMW, managed to place a 911 call, and drove up on the lawn of a nearby home. There were few references to the shooting during the 90-minute "celebration service" for Adams before a standing room-only crowd, but the ones that were made reflected a community in shock. "We need a higher purpose in life," the Rev. Robyn Gool said. "If you can blow somebody away, so to speak, a pregnant woman, you need a higher premium.
" The Adamses asked the media not to disturb the prayers of a community with questions about a crime that shocked the nation. But it's difficult not to ask "Why?
" How could a star athlete, a young man earning millions of dollars playing a game he loves, an intelligent guy who was an academic standout at the University of Colorado, plan such a heinous crime, as the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have charged? Carruth, 25, was already paying $3,000 a month in child support to former girlfriend Michelle Wright, the mother of his 5-year-old son. Saundra Adams, Cherica's mother, also said Carruth had talked to Cherica about an abortion. He later seemed excited about the baby, but the wide receiver - sidelined much of this season with a sprained ankle - also worried about money. "He seemed to be more pressured after his injury more pressured about money and how much the baby was going to cost him," she told The Associated Press. Still, many people who know Carruth say they've never seen a violent streak in him. "This is a shock," said Dave Hoskins, Carruth's football coach at Sacramento's Valley High School, who described Carruth as a talented, driven kid, a practical joker. "I can't associate the person I'm hearing about with the person I knew.
" Carruth had been going out with Adams for about a year. There was talk of a breakup, but Adams' cousin, Michael Edwards, said Adams was delighted to be pregnant. Pretty enough to be a model while in high school, Adams - known as Cookie - became a successful real estate agent. She hung out with "an upscale type of crowd, very well known," said longtime friend Kia Quick, one of the friends who eulogized Adams. Other speakers called Adams a hard worker who looked forward to the birth of her first child. "Don't worry about Chancellor," Denise McManus, her former manager at a real estate office, said as she fought back tears. "He'll be taken care of. And he'll be told about his mother's strength and love.
" As a football player, Carruth could run the 40 in 4.
17. But the FBI caught him from behind - in the trunk of a Toyota Camry, where he had been hiding for 105 minutes, outside a motel in Wildersville, Tenn., 505 miles west of here. Carruth may have done for the Camry what O."
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/sports/tears-flow-cherica-family-mourns-adams-carruth-sits-jail-article-1.850377
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC Wayne Brandon LTC Bill Koski Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown Maj Marty Hogan MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell SSgt Robert Marx PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SPC Margaret Higgins MSgt Jason McClish AN Christopher Crayne SPC Tom DeSmet SGT Charles H. Hawes SGT (Join to see)
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