From First-Round Pick to Murder Conspiracy: The Fall of Rae Carruth

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November 15, 1999.

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Shereka Adams goes to see a serial killer movie with her boyfriend, an NFL wide receiver.

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Hours later, she's making a 12 minute 911 call, bleeding out in her BMW, naming the man

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who orchestrated her murder.

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This is the story of a woman who refused to let her killer escape, and the son born

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from tragedy who proved every doctor wrong.

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Shereka Ruth was born Ray Lamar Wiggins on January 20, 1974 in Sacramento.

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By the time he was 23, the Carolina Panthers selected him as the 27th overall pick in the

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first round of the 1997 NFL Draft.

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His contract was worth 3.7 million over four years.

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He was making roughly $650,000 annually, wide receiver for an NFL team, the American Dream

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Incleats.

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His teammates saw a quiet, reserved guy.

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What they didn't see was the pattern in his personal life.

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Ray already had a six year old son in California, the child support payments were between

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3,000 and 5,000 per month.

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When you're pulling in over $50,000 a month before taxes, that might not sound devastating.

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But to Ray, it felt like his money and his freedom were being drained away.

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He decided that he was never going to let that happen again.

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Shereka Adams came into his life in 1998 at a summer pool party in Charlotte.

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She was 23, a former model and dancer who transitioned into real estate.

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Beautiful, driven, building a career in a competitive market.

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Her relationship with Ray was inconsistent.

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They were together, then they weren't, then they were again.

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In the spring of 1999, Shereka became pregnant.

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She was happy about it.

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Ray saw the complete destruction of the life that he'd built.

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He wanted an abortion.

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He pushed hard for it.

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When Shereka refused, when she made it clear this baby was coming whether he liked it or

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not, something fundamentally shifted in how Ray Karuth thought about solving problems.

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He started asking around in the dark corners of Charlotte.

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He found Van Brett Watkins, who at 40 years old, had spent most of his adult life cycling

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through the criminal justice system.

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Watkins managed a nightclub, but his real resume was violence.

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His criminal record was so extensive that during trial, the judge ordered extra security between

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Watkins and the jury.

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Ray's first request was specific.

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Beat Shereka Adams badly enough that she loses the baby.

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But that plan got complicated.

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At some point it became simpler and worse.

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Ray decided Shereka needed to die.

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He brought in Michael Kennedy, a drug dealer who knew Charlotte and could handle logistics.

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Kennedy would drive and get the weapon.

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Then there was Stanley Abraham, only 19 years old, who would ride along in the passenger

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seat.

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These three men became Ray Karuth's answer to fatherhood.

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November 15, 1999 started completely normal.

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Ray took Shereka to a late night movie.

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They saw with the media later described as a serial killer film.

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After the movie, they drove to Ray's house so Shereka could pick up her black BMW.

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As they prepared to leave, Ray made a phone call.

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Shereka heard him say it.

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We're leaving now.

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She didn't know that Michael Kennedy had just received the signal.

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Ray got into his white Ford expedition.

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Shereka followed in her BMW.

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They drove onto Ray Road, a quiet two-lane residential street.

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Ray was leading.

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Shereka stayed behind him.

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Then at a specific spot, Ray stopped his vehicle completely.

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Shereka had no choice but to stop behind him.

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The street was too narrow for her to go around.

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While Kennedy pulled the rental car alongside her driver's side window, Van Brett Watkins

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was in the back seat with a 357 charter arms revolver that Kennedy had purchased for $100.

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Money that Ray had provided.

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Watkins fired five shots.

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Four bullets hit Shereka in her neck and back, collapsing her lung and severing her critical

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blood vessels.

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Ray Karuth, sitting in his Ford expedition, watched it happen in his rear-view mirror.

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Then he drove away.

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Shereka Adams refused to die quietly.

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At 12.31 in the morning, bleeding and struggling to breathe, she grabbed her cell phone.

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She dialed 911.

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That call lasted 12 minutes.

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During that 12 minutes, Shereka was drowning in her own blood.

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Her lung had collapsed.

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She was gasping and gurgling.

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But she stayed on that line.

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And she said the words that would destroy every defense Ray's lawyer could build.

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Ray Karuth, the football player.

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He identified him by name.

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She explained that he'd slowed down in front of her, that he'd stopped his car.

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She told him he was the father of her baby.

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This recording became a dying declaration.

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One of the few exceptions to hearsay rules.

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Defense attorney David Rudolph fought hard to exclude it.

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He failed.

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Paramedics rushed Shereka to the hospital where doctors performed an emergency cesarean

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section.

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Her son, Chancellor Lee Adams, was born 10 weeks premature.

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He'd been without adequate oxygen for about 70 minutes.

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The brain damage was immediate and severe.

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Doctors told Shereka's mother, Sandra, that Chancellor would likely never walk or talk.

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Shereka held on for 28 more days.

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During those weeks, even though she couldn't speak, she communicated.

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When officer Peter Grant came in to her bedside and asked who shot her, she identified Ray.

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When Nurse Tracy Willard asked if she remembered the events, Shereka requested a pen and paper.

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She wrote that Ray insisted she follow him that night.

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She wrote that there was no legitimate reason for Ray to have stopped on that road.

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No traffic, no stop sign, nothing.

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On December 14, 1999, Shereka Adams died from multiple organ failure.

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She was 24 years old.

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Ray Caruth that posted a $3 million bail with a condition.

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If Shereka died, he had to surrender immediately.

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Instead, he ran.

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On December 15, they found him hiding in the trunk of a Toyota Camry in a motel parking lot.

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When they opened that trunk, they found bottles filled with his own urine, $3,900 in cash,

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extra clothes, candy bars, and a cell phone.

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The person who tipped off the authorities, his own mother.

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The trial started in October 2000.

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Ray's defense team tried to sell a theory that this was a drug deal gone wrong.

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Watkins at shot Shereka in spontaneous rage.

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They brought in 45 character witnesses who testified that Ray was gentle and excited about

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being a father.

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The prosecution brought three of Ray's ex-girlfriends to the stand.

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Candice Smith testified that after the shooting, Ray asked her, "I can't get in trouble though

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because I didn't shoot her," right?

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She revealed that he'd talked about getting someone to hit Shereka to cause a miscarriage.

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Michelle Wright, the mother of Ray's California son, testified about his rage over her pregnancy

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and his threats of violence.

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Amber Turner testified that Ray had threatened her life, leading her to terminate her pregnancy.

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Three different women, the same pattern, the same threats.

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In January 2001, the jury acquitted Ray of first degree murder, which saved him from a

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possible death penalty.

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But they convicted him of conspiracy to commit murder, shooting into an occupied vehicle,

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and using an instrument due to destroy an unborn child.

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He got 18 to 24 years.

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Van Brett Watkins, the trigger man, received 40 to 50 years.

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He died in prison December 2023.

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Michael Kennedy got 11 years and was released in 2011.

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Stanley Abraham received 90 days and probation.

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Chancellor Lee Adams, that baby who wasn't supposed to survive, he walks with a walker.

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He talks.

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He goes to school.

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His grandmother, Sandra, raised him with a Superman devotion.

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And she describes what Chancellor does as this "smile ministry" because of how he connects

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with people.

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In 2017, an organization called Buffs for Life built Sandra and Chancellor a custom accessible

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home.

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Sandra has publicly stated that she's forgiven Ray and the other men involved.

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She's been clear that forgiveness doesn't equal custody.

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Chancellor will never be raised by a stranger who tried to kill him.

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But if Ray shows genuine repentance, she's left the door open for some relationship.

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Ray Karuth was released on October 22, 2018.

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Right before, he released a 15-page letter that apologized but also attacked Sandra, accusing

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her of spreading lies.

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He's reportedly changed his name, gotten married, and moved to the southwestern United States.

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As of 2025, there's been no reunion with Chancellor, no relationship.

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Ray maintains complete silence about the murder of Shereka Adams.

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The story of Ray Karuth isn't about football.

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It's about a man who decided his bank account mattered more than a human life, and a woman

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who used her final breaths to make sure her son would be protected and her killer would

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be caught.

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Shereka Adams turned a 12-minute phone call and handwritten notes into justice.

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And Chancellor Lee Adams became living proof that the human spirit can survive the impossible.

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[Music]

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[Music]