RAE CURRUTH CASE

BACKGROUND

• Rae Carruth- Age 40(now) born- 1/20/74
• Graduated from the University of Colorado
• Drafted in 1997 by the Carolina Panthers
• Injury after rookie year (1 year of NFL experience)
• Lived in North Carolina

BACKGROUND

• Cherica Carruth(girlfriend)
• 8 months Pregnant
• Lived in same household as Rae Carruth
• Age 24

THAT NIGHT

• November 15, 1999, the couple went to movies in separate cars
• The couple left the theatre
• Carruth stopped his vehicle infront of Adams car to box her in.
• A shooter was paid by Carruth to pull up next to her and shoot the baby
• Cherica Adams was shot 4 times before calling 9-1-1 and being admitted to the hospital

AFTER THE SHOOTING

• Cherica Adams was announced dead after being in a state of coma.
• Doctors saved the baby (Chancellor Lee Adams) in an emergency cesarean section.
• Carruth fled the state
• Was later found on December 5 in western Tennessee in the trunk of a car of a motel
• In the trunk: $3,900 cash, bottles urine, clothes, candy bars, and a cell phone.

CONNECTED

• Van Brett Watkins was the hired shooter
• A friend of Carruth
• Manager at a night club
• Michael Kennedy- driver of vehicle

PROSECUTION

• Rae Carruth was not charged with first degree murder
• Escaped the death penalty
• January 17, Rae Carruth was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder
• Minimum of 18 years & 11 months in prison

DEFENSE

• Carruth's lawyers filed a motion that the confessed trigger man, Van Brett Watkins, shot Cherica Adams after she made an obscene gesture at him
• The defense motion also claimed that the shooting happened just hours after Carruth refused a drug deal with Watkins.