Rae Carruth, the former Carolina Panthers star who was convicted in connection with the 1999 drive-by shooting death of his pregnant ex-girlfriend, will be released from a North Carolina prison Oct. 22.
The shooting of Cherica Adams on Nov. 16, 1999, was shocking both in its brutality and its connection to a budding NFL star. Adams, 24, was seven months pregnant with Carruth’s son and was driving her BMW in Charlotte when she was shot four times by someone hired by Carruth. The wide receiver, a first-round draft pick by the Panthers in 1997, was arrested in November 1999 on charges of conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder, plus other charges. When Adams, a real estate agent he had casually dated, died a month after the shooting, Carruth fled and was arrested when FBI agents found him hiding in the trunk of a car in the parking lot of a Best Western hotel. He and three others were charged with murder.
Carruth was sentenced to 18-to-24 years in prison after his January 2001 conviction for conspiracy to commit murder, shooting into an occupied vehicle and using an instrument to destroy an unborn child. He was found not guilty of first-degree murder.
AS REPORTED BY THE WASHINGTON POST