Rae Carruth case: Timeline of one of Charlotte’s most notorious murders and the aftermath
On Nov. 16, 1999, former Carolina Panthers wide receiver Rae Carruth was involved in one of the most infamous crimes in Charlotte history. He would later be convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the death of Cherica Adams, his pregnant girlfriend.
April 19, 1997 — Rae Carruth, a speedy wide receiver from the University of Colorado, is chosen in the first round of the NFL Draft by the Carolina Panthers at No. 27 overall. In his first NFL season, Carruth wins a starting job and makes the all-rookie team.
June 1998 — Cherica Adams and Carruth meet at a pool party in Charlotte.
Nov. 16, 1999 — Adams, now the pregnant girlfriend of Carruth, is shot four times in a Charlotte drive-by shooting shortly after midnight. She and Carruth are coming home from a movie date, driving separately, with Adams following Carruth. A third car pulls alongside Adams on Rea Road and a gunman shoots her through her driver’s side window.
The baby, born 10 weeks prematurely, survives but has permanent brain damage and cerebral palsy due to being deprived of blood and oxygen. Cherica names her son Chancellor Lee Adams. Once he’s apprehended, triggerman Van Brett Watkins claims Carruth hired him as a hitman to murder Adams and the unborn child. Prosecutors say this was because Carruth didn’t want to pay child support for another baby. Carruth denies all of this through his attorney.
Dec. 14, 1999 — Adams dies in a Charlotte hospital.
Dec 15, 1999 — Found hiding in a car trunk in Tennessee after he flees Charlotte following Adams’ death, Carruth is taken into custody by the FBI.
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Dec. 31, 1999 — Chancellor Lee Adams goes home with his grandmother, Saundra Adams. Also the mother of Cherica Adams, Saundra Adams becomes her grandson’s primary caregiver.
Jan. 19, 2001 — In a compromise verdict, Carruth is sentenced to nearly 19 years in prison by a Charlotte jury for conspiracy to commit murder. But he isn’t found guilty of first-degree murder. Carruth does not take the stand in his own defense, but his attorney David Rudolf puts forward the alternate theory that the shooting wasn’t Carruth’s idea but was instead the result of a “drug deal gone bad.”
Oct. 22, 2018 — After serving his sentence, Carruth is released from a North Carolina prison, at age 44. He moves to Pennsylvania shortly afterward.
June 5, 2021 — Chancellor Lee Adams graduates from a Charlotte high school (then called Vance, now called Julius L. Chambers).
Dec. 3, 2023 — Watkins, the man who admittedly shot Cherica Adams four times, dies in prison in North Carolina at age 63. By then, his three co-conspirators in the murder have been out of prison for years. Watkins was the only one involved in Adams’ murder who was never released.
Jan. 20, 2024 — Carruth turns 50. Now married and going under a different name, Carruth lives and works in the southwestern United States and hasn’t seen Chancellor Lee Adams since his son was a baby.
Nov. 16, 2024 — On the 25th anniversary of his mother’s shooting, Chancellor Lee Adams turns 25 years old.
This story was originally published November 12, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
