Ex-NFL player Rae Carruth released after nearly 19 years in prison for murder plot

A.J. Perez USA TODAY

Published 9:23 AM EDT Oct 22, 2018

CLINTON, N.C. — Former Carolina Panthers wide receiver Rae Carruth took his first steps as a free man in nearly 19 years, leaving the Sampson Correctional Institution after serving his prison sentence for plotting the death of his pregnant girlfriend.

Carruth, 44, was convicted in 2001 for conspiracy to commit murder, using an instrument with intent to destroy an unborn child and discharging a firearm into occupied property in the shooting near Carruth’s Charlotte home on Nov. 16, 1999, that led to the death of Cherica Adams.

Chancellor Lee Adams, Carruth's son whom the hitman testified Carruth wanted dead so he wouldn’t have to pay child support, was born premature and suffers from cerebral palsy.

Carruth was acquitted of the most serious charge, first-degree murder, at trial. While he’s no longer incarcerated, Carruth will serve a probation term related to his convictions.

Carruth did not speak to reporters as he left the prison wearing a knit cap and an unzipped jacket on a chilly morning with temperatures in the high 30s. There was a smattering of applause as Carruth got into a white Chevy Tahoe and was whisked away from the prison. The tires of the Tahoe screeched as he left.

Carruth has remained largely mum as he’s sat in various North Carolina prison facilities over the last nearly two decades, outside an interview with WBTV in February.

"I'm apologizing for the loss of her daughter,” Carruth told the Charlotte-based TV station. “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."

In the interview, Carruth said he’d seek to gain “responsibility back” for raising Chancellor Lee Adams after his release, although he wrote to The Charlotte Observer he would “no longer be pursuing a relationship with Chancellor” or Saundra Adams, Cherica’s mother who has raised Chancellor.

"I promise to leave them be, which I now see is in everyone’s best interest,” Carruth wrote.

Carruth fled after the shooting before his capture in December 1999, in Tennessee as authorities found him hiding in the trunk of a car outside of a hotel.

Carruth, a native of Sacramento, California, was drafted in the first round by the Panthers in 1997 after he played collegiately at the University of Colorado. He was a first-team All-American in 1996.

Follow USA TODAY Sports' A.J. Perez on Twitter @byajperez.

Contributing: Associated Press

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