Rae Carruth Murder Trial

His football career may have fizzled before ever coming close to a Super Bowl, but former Carolina Panther Rae Carruth now faces a verdict of guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, shooting into an occupied vehicle and using an instrument to destroy an unborn child in connection with the Nov. 16, 1999, shooting of Cherica Adams.

As Judge Charles Lamm read the verdict in the courtroom, Carruth stood emotionless next to his lawyer, David Rudolf. Adams' relatives cried as they heard the verdict, a mixture of good and bad news for both sides. The verdict, rendered by a jury that returned to deliberations Thursday after informing Lamm they were deadlocked, appeared to be a compromise.

The jury could have convicted Carruth of first-degree murder based on either conspiracy or felony murder — with the underlying felony being shooting into an unoccupied vehicle. Rudolf admitted after the proceeding that he was upset by the verdict saying, "I think it's logically inconsistent and that's something that troubles me greatl,." but the defense lawyer was optimistic about an appeal. "The first degree murder charge is gone forevermore," Rudolf said.

Cherica Adams

The Trial

During the eight-week trial, prosecutors argued that Carruth masterminded the shooting to avoid paying child support and rid himself of his relationship with Adams. Adams survived for nearly a month before succumbing to four gunshot wounds. The baby, Chancellor, was delivered by an emergency Caesarean shortly after the shooting and lives with Adams' mother. The defense maintained that Carruth was looking forward to the birth of his second child and could easily afford child support. Carruth's lawyers also contended that the shooting was the result of a drug-related dispute.

The Bone Collector

In his opening argument, defense attorney David Rudolf said that admitted gunman Van Brett Watkins and wheelman Michael Kennedy were trying to pressure Carruth into financing a drug deal for them. When Carruth ultimately refused, the two men, with co-defendant Stanley Abraham, followed Carruth and Adams from a movie theater where they had seen "The Bone Collector", Rudolf contended. The couple was originally en route to Adams' apartment, the defense said, but Adams changed her mind about Carruth coming over and the two parted directions. Carruth was already headed to teammate Hannibal Navies' house — and on the phone with another woman in Atlanta — by the time Kennedy pulled up alongside Adams' BMW and Watkins opened fire, according to the defense.

But prosecutors said that Carruth was in front of Adams' vehicle when the shooting occurred and that phone records showing a flurry of calls between the cell phones of Carruth and Kennedy around the time of the shooting were indications of a hit being arranged. Testimony from 72 witnesses took 27 days in court to complete, but drama kept the trial moving at a face pace.

Voices from the Grave

The first pieces of evidence introduced to the jury were arguably the most powerful. They were the words of Cherica Adams herself. Through a host of medical and emergency personnel called to the stand, the prosecution admitted into evidence the 911 recording in which Adams moaned in pain as she tried to guide paramedics to her location. During the call, she said Rae Carruth's car was in front of hers at the time of the shooting and speculated that he was responsible for it. "I don't know what to think," she said. She also wrote three pages of notes at the hospital, further implicating Carruth in the shooting.

"Cherica Adams wasn't supposed to be an eyewitness to what the defendant had done to her and to her son. She wasn't supposed to die, but she did," prosecutor Gentry Caudill told the jury in a powerful opening statement. Defense attorney David Rudolf attempted to refute the reliability of Adams' claims, saying that she was traumatized by the shooting and later heavily medicated. Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, a defense memory expert, called changes between the 911 call and the hospital notes significant, and Dr. Gary Pellom, an anesthesiology expert, testified the medication Adams was on could have impaired her memory. But their testimony may not have been strong enough to outweigh the power of Adams' own words.

The Co-defendants

Adams wasn't the only one to implicate Carruth. The man who pulled the trigger said that Carruth commissioned him to kill Adams. "I did it because he made me do it," Van Brett Watkins testified, gesturing toward Carruth. "He dragged me into something I didn't want to be involved in." During his testimony, the hulking ex-convict ranged from threatening, fiery exchanges with Rudolf to quiet tears.

Although Watkins had hatched a deal last year with the prosecution to avoid a death sentence in exchange for his testimony, prosecutors didn't call him to the stand. After his deal was made, a sheriff's deputy came forward claiming that Watkins had admitted to her that Carruth was not involved in the shooting. When Rudolf was unsuccessful in his bid to admit Riddle's statement as an exception to hearsay, he called Watkins to the stand. The sheriff's deputy, Sgt. Shirley Riddle, also took the stand for the defense, reiterating her claim that Watkins said he shot Adams in a moment of rage after a drug deal with Carruth went sour, not because the former football player hired him.

Prosecutors did call another co-defendant, however. In a surprise move, they brought Michael Kennedy to the stand without immunity to say that he drove the car as Watkins shot Adams and that he had purchased the murder weapon according to Carruth's orders. Like Watkins, Kennedy told a similar story about Carruth wanting Adams and their unborn baby dead so he wouldn't have to pay child support. "He was there," Kennedy insisted. "He stopped his car and she stopped behind him."

The other co-defendant in the case, Stanley Abraham, was seated in the passenger seat of the car when the shooting took place. He did not testify and has not cut a deal with prosecutors. According to his lawyers and Kennedy's testimony, Abraham was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. In his closing argument, Rudolf suggested to the jury that Abraham was the least culpable in the crime and that had Carruth really hired Kennedy and Watkins, Abraham surely could have cut a deal for himself. But prosecutor Gentry Caudill countered in his rebuttal closing that, like Watkins and Kennedy, Abraham is evil — but that none are as evil as Carruth.

The Women in Carruth's Life

A parade of women took the stand during the trial, some to sing Carruth's praises but others to discredit Carruth as a womanizer who wanted to kill the women he impregnated. One ex-girlfriend, Candace Smith, testified that Carruth admitted involvement in the shooting as the two stood in the hospital waiting room where doctors were working to save Cherica Adams and Chancellor. "He said, 'I can't get in trouble, can I? Because I didn't actually pull the trigger,'" testified Smith, a former stripper who did not wish to have her face on camera. She also said that after Adams refused to have an abortion, Carruth told her "he would have someone go over and kick her in the stomach and make her have a miscarriage," she testified.

Another ex-girlfriend said that Carruth threatened to kill her if she didn't abort his unborn child. Amber Turner, testifying as a rebuttal witness for the state, said that Carruth also joked about having his first child, Rae Jr., and Michelle Wright, the boy's mother, killed. Wright also testified during the rebuttal case, saying that Carruth joked that she would get into a car accident. But Carruth had his share of female supporters on the stand. Starlita Walker, a platonic female friend said Carruth loved kids and regularly took her 7-year-old son on outings. Carruth "doesn't have a mean hair on his head," according to one ex-girlfriend, Dawnyle Willard, who also testified that Carruth broke down when he heard Adams died and that he believed she was his only hope for exoneration.

Monique Young, Carruth's friend, testified he was the "sweetest person I knew," and his own cousin, Tiffany Adams, said Carruth gave her the chance to go to college after he was drafted by the NFL. Tanya Ferguson, who dated Carruth's teammate Hannibal Navies, cried as she described Carruth as a "very loving person." Even Wright, though maintaining that Carruth was not a good father to their son, acknowledged that Carruth was a good person. Turner's own mother testified that she never heard him raise his voice, and she even mouthed "I love you" to him after stepping down from the witness stand.

Team Players

A host of professional athletes took the stand on Carruth's behalf. Leonard Wheeler, William Floyd and Muhsin Muhammad, all fellow Panthers, painted the wide receiver as a soft-spoken jokester who enjoyed playing video games, loved kids and volunteered his time in the community. Navies, a teammate with Carruth both on the Panthers and at the University of Colorado, testified that Carruth seemed fine when he arrived at his house after his date with Adams. Even a former professional basketball player took the stand, but his testimony wasn't as positive as that of Carruth's ex-teammates. Charles Shackleford, who played for the Charlotte Hornets, also took the stand. The married athlete admitted to having an affair with Candace Smith, during which time she told him that Carruth admitted responsibility in the shooting, he testified.

Phone Records

The phone played a pivotal role in the case. Prosecutors presented records of calls made between Carruth's and Kennedy's cell phones around the time of the shooting. But through the testimony of private investigator Ron Guerette, the defense contended the pattern of calls reflected a drug deal, not a contract killing. The defense also said that Carruth was on the phone with another girlfriend, Alondia Cheney, at the time of the shooting, proving that he was not directly in front of Adams' car.

The Fifth Amendment

In the end, it seemed the jury believed Carruth capable of committing criminal acts more than they believed the glowing portrayals painted by his allies. The drug-deal theory was not mentioned much by the defense after opening arguments, and several witnesses were conspicuously absent from the stand. Among those who did not take the stand were Alondia Cheney, Stanley Abraham and Wendy Cole who drove Carruth in the trunk of her car to Tennessee.

Perhaps the witness jurors wanted to hear from most was Carruth himself, who chose not to testify during the trial.

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Rae Carruth

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Charged with masterminding the drive-by murder of his pregnant girlfriend, Rae Carruth, 26, is the first pro-athlete facing capital murder, in a case that has more twists and turns than a football game.

Also at stake is the future of Carruth's son born hours after the shooting. Chancellor Lee Adams, who already faces life with no mother, could be orphaned as a result of the verdict.

One of Carruth's three co-defendants has already admitted to pulling the trigger that killed Cherica Adams, Carruth's 24-year-old girlfriend, who was seven months pregnant with his child. Under a plea deal, triggerman Van Brett Watkins escaped a capital murder trial in exchange for testimony implicating Carruth. But less than a week before jury selection began, Watkins told an entirely different story -- one that could clear Carruth.

Prosecutors claim that Carruth set up Adams' murder to avoid paying child support, while the defense claims that the former wide receiver is the victim of a frame-up after refusing to finance a drug deal.


By most accounts, Cherica Adams was not star-struck by Rae Carruth. The one-time model first became acquainted with professional athletes as a teenager, babysitting for children of the Charlotte Hornets players. Friends told the Charlotte Observer that Cherica, known as "Cookie," would chat at games with high-profile players she knew, including Shaquille O'Neal.

While in college, Adams interned for the Panthers. She also worked briefly in a topless dance club that athletes were known to frequent. Some say Adams met Carruth during her stint at the club, but most friends and relatives of the couple say the two met at a party at Panther Ernie Mills' house.

Carruth and Adams began dating, though not exclusively.

On Nov. 15, 1999, the night of the shooting, the couple were only on their second date since Adams' pregnancy, prosecutors say.

On that Monday evening date, Adams and Carruth went to a 9:45 p.m. showing of The Bone Collector -- a film about a police hunt for a killer. They left the Regal Cinemas in South Charlotte in separate cars, with Adams driving in her black BMW and Carruth driving in front of her in his white Ford Expedition.

Within minutes, another car drove up alongside Adams' and opened fire. Four bullets struck her in the back, damaging her stomach, liver and right lung, but she managed to pull over and call 911 on her cell phone.

By the time police arrived, both Carruth's car and the car carrying the culprits were long gone.

Adams, distraught and in pain, told the dispatcher that Carruth was in the car in front of hers when someone pulled up beside her and opened fire, according to court papers. She even expressed her suspicions that Carruth was behind the shooting, telling the operator, "I think he did it. I don't know what to think."

Adams was rushed to Carolina Medical Center, where doctors delivered a baby boy by Caesarean section 10 weeks early. Adams had picked the baby's name, Chancellor Lee, months earlier.


During the 30 days Adams managed to cling to life, she scrawled three pages of notes recollecting the shooting. She suggested that Carruth blocked her path as the other car drove up beside her.

"He was driving in front of me and stopped in the road," the notes say. "He blocked the front."


Eight days later, on Thanksgiving Day, police arrested and charged Carruth for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, attempted murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle.

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