NFL player hires hitman to kill pregnant girlfriend

Pictured here is: Cherica Adams' son Chancellor Lee Adams who was born with cerebal palsy, mother Saundra Adams Rae Lamar Wiggins, known as Rae Carruth, is a former professional football player, a wide receiver for the Carolina Panthers of the NFL. 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. On November 16, 1999, near Carruth's home in Charlotte, North Carolina, Cherica Adams, a real estate agent he had been casually dating, was shot four times by Van Brett Watkins, a night club manager and a friend of Carruth. Adams managed to call 911, and said that Carruth had stopped his vehicle in front of hers, and that another vehicle drove alongside and its passenger had shot her. Carruth then drove away 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, named Chancellor Lee Adams, via an emergency Caesarean section but Cherica died a month later on December 14. Carruth went to the police and posted a $3 million bail, on condition that if either Adams or the infant died, he would turn himself in. After Adams died, however, he fled. Carruth was captured the next day in western Tennessee, found hiding in the trunk of a car outside a motel. 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 so was spared the death penalty. He is serving the sentence at Harnett Correctional Institution in Lillington, North Carolina, with a projected release date of October 22, 2018. Watkins was sentenced to 50 years in prison and spared the death penalty for testifying against Carruth. Ref: cherica_adams Focus News Agency Los Angel *** Local Caption *** 05120791