Former NFL player Rae Carruth breaks his silence to take responsibility for the 2001 murder of his pregnant girlfriend and wants custody of son born disabled as a result of the shooting

  • Rae Carruth, a former Carolina Panthers player, is in the final year of a 19-year sentence for conspiring to murder Cherica Adams in 2001
  • Adams was pregnant with his son Chancellor Lee Adams when she was killed
  • Chancellor survived but suffered brain damage after a complicated birth
  • Saundra Adams, Cherica's mother, forgave Carruth but refuses to relinquish custody: '[Chancellor] will never be raised by [someone] who tried to kill him'

Former Carolina Panther Rae Carruth is escorted by Mecklenburg County Sherrif deputies into the Mecklenburg County Courthouse for a civil hearing in 2003

Former Carolina Panther Rae Carruth is escorted by Mecklenburg County Sherrif deputies into the Mecklenburg County Courthouse for a civil hearing in 2003

After spending the last 17 years in a North Carolina prison for conspiring to murder his pregnant girlfriend in 2001, former Carolina Panthers wide receiver Rae Carruth has broken his silence to take responsibility for the murder and state his desire to gain custody of his teenage son who was born premature and suffered brain damage as a result of the fatal shooting.

Carruth, 44, was sentenced to 18 to 24 years in prison after being found guilty of hiring Van Brett Watkins and Michael Kennedy to murder Cherica Adams, who was 29 weeks pregnant with Carruth's child at the time. Watkins shot Adams four times and was ultimately sentenced to a minimum of 40 years in prison while Kennedy, who drove the car, was released in 2011. 

Carruth and Adams's son, Chancellor Lee Adams, was born 10 weeks premature in an emergency C-section. All four bullets missed him, but because Cherica Adams was losing blood, Chancellor sustained permanent brain damage and cerebral palsy after being without oxygen for 70 minutes before he was born.

Carruth, who is scheduled to be released from prison in October, told WBTV Charlotte that he was sorry for the crime,  specifically apologizing to Cherica's mother Saundra Adams, who has raised the 18-year-old Chancellor since birth. 

'I'm apologizing for the loss of her daughter,' Carruth said from prison. 'I'm apologizing for the impairment of my son. I feel responsible for everything that happened. And I just want her to know that truly I am sorry for everything.'

Chancellor Lee Adams, left, and his grandmother Saundra Adams at Freedom Park in Charlotte in early November. Chancellor was never supposed to live for even a day -- his father, former Carolina Panther Rae Carruth, was convicted of masterminding a conspiracy to murder him and his mother, Cherica Adams, who had refused to get an abortion 

Chancellor Lee Adams, left, and his grandmother Saundra Adams at Freedom Park in Charlotte in early November. Chancellor was never supposed to live for even a day -- his father, former Carolina Panther Rae Carruth, was convicted of masterminding a conspiracy to murder him and his mother, Cherica Adams, who had refused to get an abortion 

Former NFL player Rae Carruth exits the courtroom at the Criminal Courts Building in Charlotte, NC January 22, 2001
Cherica Adams is shown in this 1993 West Charlotte High yearbook photo

Carruth (left) said that he ordered the murder of Cherica Adams (right) because she refused to get an abortion. Now he hopes to take custody of his son after his October 22 release 

Chancellor Lee Adams is helped to his feet by his grandmother and caregiver, Saundra Adams 

Chancellor Lee Adams is helped to his feet by his grandmother and caregiver, Saundra Adams 

Chancellor Lee Adams (seen here in his childhood) is now 18 years old after being born in the immediate aftermath of his mother's shooting

Chancellor Lee Adams (seen here in his childhood) is now 18 years old after being born in the immediate aftermath of his mother's shooting

All four bullets missed him, but because Cherica Adams was losing blood, Chancellor sustained permanent brain damage and cerebral palsy after being without oxygen for 70 minutes before he was born

All four bullets missed him, but because Cherica Adams was losing blood, Chancellor sustained permanent brain damage and cerebral palsy after being without oxygen for 70 minutes before he was born

Carruth also said he hopes to gain custody of his son.

'I should be raising my son,' he told WBTV. 'His mother should be raising her son. Ms. Adams should not be doing this and I want that responsibility back. I feel like he might not ever have his mother in his life but he could still have me and I could still make a difference and I don't think that's anyone's responsibility when I'm still here.'

Carruth went on to say that he thinks he can repair his relationship with his son. 

'I feel like I owe Chancellor,' Carruth said. 'I let him down as he came into this world and the only way that I can make that right, the only way I can work out my relationship with my son, is to be there for him and to be a father and a dad to him going forward.' 

He will never be raised by a stranger – someone he doesn't know and who tried to kill him 
Saundra Adams about Rae Carruth, the father of her grandson Chancellor 

Saundra Adams told the Charlotte Observer that she was pleased Carruth was taking responsibility, but she was not going to relinquish custody of her grandson.

'I've forgiven Rae already, but to have any type of relationship with him, there does have to be some repentance,' Adams said. 'And I think this opens the door. But I can say definitively he's not ever going to have custody of Chancellor. 

'Chancellor will be raised either by me or, after I'm gone, by someone else who loves him and who knows him,' she continued. 'He will never be raised by a stranger – someone he doesn't know and who tried to kill him.'

In past interviews with the Charlotte Observer, Saundra Adams said she hopes to be present when Carruth is released later this year.  

Video courtesy of WSOCTV 

A photo of a pregnant Cherica Adams that was submitted into evidence
Rae Carruth was arrested after fleeing to Tennessee after the shooting of Adams

(Left) A photo of a pregnant Cherica Adams that was submitted into evidence. (Right) Rae Carruth was arrested after fleeing to Tennessee after the shooting of Adams 

Chancellor Lee Adams, left, and his grandmother Saundra Adams on a bridge at Freedom Park in Charlotte in early November 2017

Chancellor Lee Adams, left, and his grandmother Saundra Adams on a bridge at Freedom Park in Charlotte in early November 2017

Saundra Adams, left, and Chancellor Lee Adams on November 4, 2015, in North Carolina

Saundra Adams, left, and Chancellor Lee Adams on November 4, 2015, in North Carolina

Saundra Adams, left, and Chancellor Lee Adams on November 4, 2015 at Misty Meadows in Weddington North Carolina. She says she plans on retaining custody of Chancellor 

Saundra Adams, left, and Chancellor Lee Adams on November 4, 2015 at Misty Meadows in Weddington North Carolina. She says she plans on retaining custody of Chancellor 

Chancellor Lee Adams, right, laughs as he does sit-ups for physical therapist Amy Sturkey

Chancellor Lee Adams, right, laughs as he does sit-ups for physical therapist Amy Sturkey

Adams was 29 weeks pregnant on November 16, 1999, when she was driving behind Carruth, who suddenly came to a stop in front of her. 

A separate car containing the other men pulled up near her before Watkins fired four shots at the pregnant Adams from the backseat.

During their trial, Williams told how Carruth ordered the killing and watched in his rear view mirror as Adams 'drowned' on her own blood.

She was able to call 911 herself and was taken to hospital where her son was removed from her womb the night of the shooting.

In her 911 call, she told the operator: 'I was following my baby's daddy, Rae Carruth, the football player. He slowed down and a car pulled up beside me.

'He just left. I think he did it. I don't know what to think.'

A month later, she died. Chancellor remained under doctors' care at the time but was later released to live with his grandmother.

Carruth actually fled after the murder, but was captured in Tennessee that December hiding in the trunk of a car outside motel with $3,900 cash, bottles of his own urine, extra clothes, candy, and a cellular phone. 

The Panthers waived him the following day, citing the morals clause in his rookie contract.     

Carruth penned a 15-page letter to Saundra Adams from prison in which he claims that she lied about him. The California native wrote that he did apologize to Saundra Adams, which she denied ever happening.

Rae Carruth looks at a Mecklenburg County Sheriff's deputy just after the verdicts were announced in his first degree murder trial in Charlotte, January 19, 2001

Rae Carruth looks at a Mecklenburg County Sheriff's deputy just after the verdicts were announced in his first degree murder trial in Charlotte, January 19, 2001

He also challenged her assertion that his motive behind the murder had to do with paying child support rather than being upset with Cherica for her refusal to get an abortion.

Carruth said he wished he could go back to 1999 and change the past.

'If I could change anything, I'd change the whole situation,' he wrote. 'His mother would still be here and I wouldn't be where I'm at. So that's what I'd want to change. I want the incident to never have happened at all.'

Carruth began the letter by saying he has 'accepted my lot as a social pariah.'

He told WBTV that he has changed, admitting that he was very 'self-centered' when he was drafted out of Colorado in the first round of the 1998 NFL Draft.  

Astonishingly, Saundra Adams has forgiven Carruth and his co-conspirators and plans to take Chancellor to meet him when he is released from prison next year.

'We've talked about it a lot,' she told The Charlotte Observer in November.

The pair have met once before. In 2000, before he was convicted, Chancellor's grandmother took him to the jail where Carruth was being held so the boy could meet his father. 

She claims that once the former athlete realized the media was not allowed to film or photograph the meeting, he lost interest.

Saundra Adams also claimed that despite the fact that Carruth earned $40,000-a-game for the Panthers, he did not want to see his son born so that he would not be bound to pay child support. 

In his letter to Saundra Adams, Carruth disputed that version of events, saying that his motivation stemmed from his desire to see Cherica Adams get an abortion.   

A native of California, Carruth was drafted in the first round of the 1998 NFL Draft

A native of California, Carruth was drafted in the first round of the 1998 NFL Draft

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