Rae Carruth

Rae Carruth (born January 20, 1974 in Sacramento, California) is a former American football wide receiver in the NFL for the Carolina Panthers. In 2001, he was found guilty of conspiring to murder the woman who at the time was carrying his child and is serving a prison sentence with an expected release date of 2018.

Biography
Carruth attended Valley High School in Sacramento, California, and played four seasons at the University of Colorado. He was named a first-team All-America in 1996. His college quarterbacks were future NFL quarterbacks Koy Detmer and Kordell Stewart. Carruth was a first-round draft pick, going 27th in the 1997 NFL Draft to the Carolina Panthers. He signed a four year, $3.7 million deal.

He had a respectable rookie season, starting 14 games. Wearing uniform number 89, Carruth caught 44 passes for 545 yards. Carruth caught four touchdown passes, tied for first among rookie receivers. He was named to the all-rookie team at wide receiver.

Carruth broke his right foot in the opening game of 1998 and did not catch another pass that season due to the injury. He ended the year with four catches for 59 yards. Carruth played in the first six games of the 1999 season, totaling 14 catches for 200 yards.

Criminal history
On Nov. 16, 1999, near Carruth's home in Charlotte, North Carolina, Cherica Adams, a woman Carruth had been dating, was shot four times by Van Brett Watkins, a night club manager and friend of Carruth. Surviving the shooting for a time, Adams called 911 and described Carruth's behavior: he had stopped his vehicle in front of hers as another vehicle drove alongside Adams and its passenger shot her. Carruth then drove from the scene.

Adams was eight months pregnant with Carruth's child at the time. Soon after her admission to the hospital, she fell into a coma. Doctors saved the child, Chancellor Lee Adams, in an emergency Caesarean section, but Cherica Adams died a month later on Dec. 14.

Carruth went to the police and posted a $3 million bail, with the condition that if either Cherica or Chancellor died, he would turn himself in. After Cherica died, Carruth became a fugitive. The Panthers released him a few days later, citing a morals clause in his contract. He was captured after being found hiding in the trunk of a car outside a motel in Parkers Crossroads, Tennessee. Also in the trunk was $3,900 cash, bottles to hold his urine, extra clothes, candy bars, and a cell phone.

Carruth was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, shooting into an occupied vehicle, and using an instrument to destroy an unborn child. He was sentenced to 18 to 24 years in prison. He was found not guilty of first-degree murder and was spared the death penalty. Carruth is serving a sentence of at least 18 years and 11 months at Nash Correctional Institution near Rocky Mount, North Carolina. He has a projected release date of Oct. 22, 2018. The driver in the murder, Michael Kennedy, plead guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to 11 years and eight months.