208: The Murder of Cherica Adams

WEBVTT

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Southern Fried true crime covers cases that
are not suitable for young listeners, and

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there may also be some explicit language
used. Listener discretion is advased. At

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twelve thirty am on November sixteenth,
nineteen ninety nine, it was the dead

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of night in Charlotte, North Carolina. The skies were clear of clouds,

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the wind was barely blowing, and
the temperature was at chilly forty three degrees.

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When twenty four year old Shreika Adams
left for a date night with her

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boyfriend earlier that evening, she wasn't
in fear of her life. If anything,

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she was afraid of losing her boyfriend. She was eight months pregnant with

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a child he had not wanted,
but she didn't feel unsafe, just happy

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he wanted to spend time with her. Growing up around Charlotte, Sharika was

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part of a melting pot of diverse
cultures, often compared to its beautiful seasons.

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In nineteen ninety nine, Charlotte was
still in the first glow of a

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new NFL team, The Carolina Panthers, made their debut in nineteen ninety five,

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thrilling North Carolinians statewide. But Charlotte
had a fairly high homicide rate in

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the nineties. In general, statistically, it is still in the bottom ten

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percent of cities reporting violent crime,
making it one of the more dangerous cities

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in the nation. Polling suggests many
locals would disagree. Charlotteans are proud of

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their city and its distinct character,
and a great number insists it is safe,

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while acknowledging there are some rougher parts
of town. But no one can

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deny the homicide issue in the nineties, even if you didn't live in one

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of the more dangerous areas. Law
enforcement maintain that it was related to the

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crack epidemic, and Shirka's case hearkens
back to that mindset when her murderer's defense

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would be a drug deal gone wrong. Not that Shirka was doing drugs,

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know that she was in the wrong
place at the wrong time. But we

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are all familiar with another depressing statistic
that the number one cause of death for

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pregnant women is murder. Welcome to
episode two oh eight, The Murder of

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Sharika Adams. Serika Lavina Adams was
born on June thirtieth, nineteen seventy five,

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to her mother, Sondra Adams and
her father, Jeff Mooney, near

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Charlotte, North Carolina. Serika's mother, Sondra, would later see in interviews

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that she named Sharika in part because
of the singer's share, and she chose

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Serika's middle name, Lavina because that
was Sondra's mother's middle name. Sondra gave

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birth to Sharika when she was seventeen
years old. At the time, she

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was a senior in high school.
Sondra and Shrika's father, Jeff, didn't

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stay together as her families grew.
Sherika had two sisters, a brother,

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and a stepbrother, and Sherika was
mostly raised by Sondra and her parents in

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King's Mountain, North Carolina. King's
Mountain is about thirty two miles west of

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Charlotte, but still within the metropolitan
area of Charlotte. Sherika was a young

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woman known for her confidence and kindness. She had a magnetic presence and made

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those around her feel good about themselves. Shika was also very beautiful. Her

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friend Valerie Brooks said that her looks
could rival icons like Halle Berry and Beyonce.

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Shirika was an absolute knockout, she
said, but she wasn't aware of

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how pretty she was, Valerie pointed
out, emphasizing that Shirka's beauty was actually

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more internal. Between her charismatic personality, generous nature, and stunning good looks,

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people flocked to her. She had
so many friends who spoke highly of

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her. In nineteen ninety three,
Sherika graduated from West Charlotte High School.

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The next fall, she attended North
Carolina's Winston Salem State University, but by

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nineteen ninety five, Shika had stopped
pursuing her degree. Instead, she entered

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the workforce. While she did try
out several different jobs, she primarily worked

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in real estate, and she was
really good at it. In nineteen ninety

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seven, twenty two year old Cherika
won a million dollar Circle award. The

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specific award she received was dubbed Silver
and meant she had sold high value homes

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worth at least two million dollars.
Then she also took on a second job.

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In the late nineteen nineties, she
became a dancer at a strip club,

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although she was doing well otherwise.
According to Sherika's mother, Sondra,

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the money Shika earned from dancing was
really helpful for her financial stability, which

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was important to the young woman.
In June of nineteen ninety eight, twenty

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three year old Cherika went to a
pool party. There she met us man

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named Ray Caruth. Ray was twenty
four years old and an NFL player.

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He was a wide receiver for the
Carolina Panthers, and Sriika met him right

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when his star was on the rise. The year before. In April of

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nineteen ninety seven, Ray had been
a first round draft pick for the Carolina

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Panthers. He had signed a four
year contract for three point seven million dollars,

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and his first season had started off
strong. He caught forty four passes

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for five hundred and forty five yards, as well as four touchdown passes.

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As a result, Ray was named
wide receiver for the NFL All Rookie Team.

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Whether you know much about football or
not, you can see Ray Caruth's

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undeniable talent. When he and Serika
began talking, I'm sure she was completely

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dazzled. How could she not be? She was seeing an actual Panther.

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I was about her age when the
Titans came to Nashville, and it was

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huge. For years. The team
still foll so new and brought so much

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pride to our city. I was
a bartender at a nightclub and players would

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sneak into the VIP room. They
were an even bigger deal than the rock

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stars and rappers who graced our doors. I met lots of musicians, but

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players were off limits unless they asked
to meet you. I imagine it was

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a heady experience to meet a celebrity
like that and for him to be interested

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in her, especially the toast of
the town, a new panther for the

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home team that still had that new
shine to them. Srika would have been

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wild from the beginning, and Ray
Caruth's meteoric rise was attractive to her.

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How could it not be. She
was a catch herself, also talented,

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beautiful, and with a bright future. But they still were not an exclusive

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couple. Ray made sure to keep
a cash They were two attractive, charismatic

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young people having fun but also working
hard towards their own goals. But it

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became more complicated seventeen months later when
Ray would become the father of Serika's child.

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I'm going to pause now for a
short commercial break. Ray Lamar Theotis

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Wiggins was born on January twentieth,
nineteen seventy four, to his mother,

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Theodre and his father Charles Wiggins.
He had one sibling. Ray's father,

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Charles, didn't have much of a
role in his son's life. Instead,

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Ray was mostly raised by his mother
and his stepfather, Samuel Caruth. That's

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why Ray started going by Ray Caruth. It was his stepfather's surname. In

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nineteen eighty eight, when Ray was
about fourteen years old, his mother and

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stepfather divorced, but Ray kept using
the name Caruth. Sometimes his middle name

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is listed as Theotis, other times
it's listed as Lamar. It's unclear what

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formal name is change paperwork Ray did
or did not fill out, but court

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documents would later list him as Ray
Lamar Wiggins, also known as Ray Caruth.

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Ray was originally from Sacramento, California. He lived in an area known

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as Oak Park in Ventura County,
and he attended Valley High School. He

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played football and was quickly noticed for
his talent on the field. He was

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also a popular kid. The Charlotte
Observer reported that Ray was named his high

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school prom king not once, but
twice. Ray wasn't your stereotypical big football

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player. He stood five feet eleven
inches tall and weighed one hundred and ninety

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four pounds that he was fast,
incredibly fast. He could run forty yards

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in four point three seconds. According
to The Sacramento b Ray knew he needed

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an athletic scholarship to achieve his goals. He told his friends and family that

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he wanted to be famous. He
wanted a bee career in football, but

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his grades were a problem. His
mother, high school teachers, and guidance

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counselors helped him to develop an academic
plan. It was the only way he'd

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be able to get a full ride
to college, so with the help of

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that support system, Ray took extra
summer and night classes. By nineteen ninety

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two, he graduated from Balley High
with a three point two GPA, and

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he was offered a football scholarship from
the University of Colorado, Boulder. As

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an eighteen year old kid heading off
to college, Ray was known for being

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a reserved young man. People described
him as quiet, slow to trust,

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with very few friends. When Ray
visited the University of Colorado for recruiting purposes,

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he treated it like a business trip. He wrote down notes. He

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brought a briefcase. While other potential
football recruits were partying it up in Boulder,

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Ray didn't join in He preferred to
play video games in his free time.

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But even though Ray was a serious
person and not really a joiner,

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he was well liked at u C. Boulder. Ray played four seasons as

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a Buffalo. He became an All
conference wide receiver. He majored in English,

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went to class, and, as
most of us do in college,

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dated around. Ray was quite the
charmer with the ladies, and according to

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those who knew him, he preferred
to date women casually. He wasn't interested

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in monogamy or long term relationships,
as his defense attorney David Rudolph later said,

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his focus was pretty much on sports, football and women back in the

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day. In the winner of nineteen
ninety three to ninety four, Ray went

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home to Sacramento for a visit.
That's when he reconnected with an old high

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school flame. Her name was Michelle
Wright, and about nine months later,

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in August of ninety four, Michele
gave birth to Ray's first child, a

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son named Junior. Ray, like
his own dad, was not a good

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father. When Ray Junior was born, Ray himself was a sophomore at CU

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Boulder. He wasn't present for his
son's birth. Instead, he chose to

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go to the university's football camp.
Then, after Michelle was granted full custody

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of their son, Ray refused to
make his child support payments. By the

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time Ray was on the Carolina Panthers
football team, Michelle was forced to take

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him to court for child support.
She was also forced to submit to a

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paternity test. Ray simply was not
going to pay her child support otherwise.

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According to Sports Illustrated, the court
issued a temporary order for Ray to pay

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five thousand, five hundred and fifty
dollars a month for Ray Junior's care.

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This was based on Ray's massive NFL
salary. Of course, he was making

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about thirty seven grand each game,
with sixteen games a year and six hundred

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thousand dollars in Ray's pocket. Five
grand a month is peanuts, at least

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it should be when it comes to
supporting your child. But according to Michelle's

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testimony, she and Ray discussed this
child support payment privately, and she agreed

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to let Ray pay only two thousand, seven hundred a month on the condition

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that he would spend more time with
his son, but he didn't do it.

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Over the next two decades, Ray
rarely saw his son, only coming

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into his life off and on.
Michelle said that when she confronted Ray about

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his lack of follow through on their
child support agreement, he made a joke.

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He said that Michelle shouldn't be surprised
if she quote gotten a fatal car

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accident. Yeah, real funny.
At the same time that Ray was kicking

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his feet of her child' support payments
for Michelle and Ray Junior, he was

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seeing another woman. Her name was
Amber Turner, and while Ray couldn't fathom

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paying the mother of his son for
childcare expenses, he would lavish Amber with

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gifts. He gave her five hundred
dollars a month, He bought her Alexis

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clothes, the whole nine yards.
But when Amber became pregnant in March of

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nineteen ninety eight, Ray quickly changed
his tune. He wanted her to get

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an abortion. According to Amber's court
testimony, Ray threatened her he said,

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don't make me send somebody out here
to kill you. You know I'd do

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it. In the end, Amber
did have the abortion. In nineteen ninety

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seven, Ray graduated from CU Boulder. He had played four seasons for the

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Buffaloes and was named a first team
All American in nineteen ninety six. As

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he headed for his first job in
his dream career. This time he took

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a skateboard instead of a briefcase.
He was much more laid back now,

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maybe too laid back, as we'll
see. He was a first round draft

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by the Carolina Panthers in nineteen ninety
seven, and he was making absolute bank.

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He signed a four year, three
point seven million dollar deal that included

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a one point three million dollar signing
bonus. Over the next few years,

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he would purchase a white Ford Expedition, a red Mercedes, and a nice

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house in Charlotte, though not a
mansion. He paid two hundred and thirty

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seven thousand then, which would be
about four hundred thousand now, depressingly averaged

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in this housing market. But Ray's
financial situation wasn't all peaches and cream.

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In his second season, he broke
his right foot in the very first game.

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Consequently, he missed out on most
of the nineteen ninety eight season.

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Sports Illustrated reported that Ray felt shunned
by his Carolina teammates following his injury,

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but rather than spending time bonding with
them, he would play video games at

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home. So you got a wonder
who was doing the shunning. The next

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season. In nineteen ninety nine,
Ray was benched in September. He had

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dropped an important pass in a game
against the Jaguars. During this season,

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Then Panthers coach George Seaffert tried to
move to a new position. He wanted

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Ray to be a punt returner,
not a wide receiver. According to the

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Charlotte Observer, Ray was not happy
about this. He made intentional errors so

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that Seaffert would change his position back
The next month, in October, Ray

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suffered a left ankle sprain, and
just like that, Ray's nineteen ninety nine

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football season had been cut short again. All this is to say race football

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career, which had started off well, was going nowhere fast. But back

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to Ray and Shika. They had
first met at that pool party in the

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summer of ninety eight, before Ray
started having problems on the field. According

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to Sandra Adams, Sharika took Ray
to meet her father, Jeff Mooney,

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just a few hours after that pool
party. Jeff, who Sharika had reconnected

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with in her teenage years, lived
nearby. From that point on, Ray

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and Shirika would meet up a few
times during the summer. Despite the impromptu

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visit with Sherika's father. Ray and
Shirika weren't technically boyfriend and girlfriend. They

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both dated other people. Serika even
moved out of state briefly before returning to

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Charlotte. After the summer of nineteen
ninety eight, they had stopped seeing each

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other and it looked like it was
over for good, except by pure chance.

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In November of nineteen ninety eight,
Ray and Serika crossed paths once more.

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He was at a birthday party for
a fellow Panthers player, and the

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party was being held at the Strip
club where Shuika danced. Serika and Ray

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left the party together, and their
casual relationship began once more. By April

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of nineteen ninety nine, Shika was
pregnant. After they verified her pregnancy by

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a doctor, Ray asked her to
get an abortion. She said no.

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Serika said she had already had an
abortion before and wasn't going to do it

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00:16:59.279 --> 00:17:03.039
again. According to her friends,
she would have been open to settling down

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and starting a family with Ray,
but he was clearly not interested in that.

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Still, Suika was unfazed. She
decided to have the baby and raise

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00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:17.680
the child by herself. After all, she had lots of family in the

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area, her support network was strong, she was confident that she could be

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a single mom. At this time, Serika had started working as a financial

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00:17:26.680 --> 00:17:32.400
manager at a bank, and she
had always dreamt of being a mother.

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Her friends knew that she already had
the baby names picked out. If it

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was a little girl, she'd name
her Chase. If it was a boy,

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she would name him Chancellor. I'm
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By November of nineteen ninety nine, twenty

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four year old Sharika was about eight
months pregnant. While she and Ray weren't

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00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:15.279
considering marriage, they did do baby
related activities together. They had gone to

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00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:21.359
a lama's class, Ray had helped
by baby furniture. The two soon to

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00:20:21.359 --> 00:20:26.359
be parents seemed to be friendly,
if not a serious couple. On the

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00:20:26.400 --> 00:20:30.119
evening of Monday, November fifteenth,
Ray invited Sharika to go to the movies

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00:20:30.160 --> 00:20:36.480
with him. It was a double
date. Ray's friend and fellow Panthers player,

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00:20:36.640 --> 00:20:41.640
Hannibal Navis and his girlfriend were also
going, so that night, Sharika

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00:20:41.720 --> 00:20:45.920
drove to Ray's house. Before the
movie began, she left her car at

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00:20:45.920 --> 00:20:51.160
his place. Then they drove to
the theater together. They watched the nine

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00:20:51.279 --> 00:20:56.319
forty five showing of The Bone Collector
at the Regal Cinemas in South Charlotte.

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Afterwards, Ray and Sharika hopped in
his suv to head back to his house.

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Serika was under the impression that this
was the end of the night.

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She was just getting her car to
go home. But when they got back

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00:21:08.240 --> 00:21:11.960
to the house, Ray insisted that
they go back to her place. He

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00:21:12.039 --> 00:21:17.400
wanted to drive his car there,
with Shika in her own car following behind

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00:21:17.480 --> 00:21:22.640
him. At twelve fifteen am,
Sharika called her cousin and roommate Maudre Floyd

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00:21:22.960 --> 00:21:29.480
and asked him to straighten up their
apartment. She wasn't expecting company, much

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00:21:29.559 --> 00:21:33.559
less Ray that night, and she
didn't want her place to be messy.

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00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:37.680
Serika told Maudri they'd be there in
about fifteen minutes. Then she watched Ray

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00:21:37.880 --> 00:21:42.839
make a phone call. At twelve
nineteen am. Ray told someone something along

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00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:48.519
the lines of we're getting ready to
leave the house. Reports very but that's

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00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:55.279
the gist. But Sharika had no
reason to think this was strange, so

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00:21:55.359 --> 00:21:59.920
she got in her black BMWSUV and
Ray got in his white Ford Expedition.

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As they headed to Shiika's place,
Ray drove in front of her to lead

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the way, so when he unexpectedly
slowed to a near stop, Sharika had

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00:22:10.400 --> 00:22:15.119
two as well. Ray and Shika
were on a two lane residential street.

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There were no stop signs or traffic
lights in the area, so she didn't

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understand why Ray was driving this way. Between Ray's big SUV and her own

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suv, Sharika didn't have the space
to go around him to see what was

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00:22:29.640 --> 00:22:36.079
up. Moments later, a Nissan
Maxima pulled up beside Sherika's driver's side window.

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The unknown car was very close to
her, only about a foot away.

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Someone in the back seat rolled their
window all the way down and opened

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00:22:45.079 --> 00:22:52.880
fire into Shika's driver's side window.
Five gunshots rang out, four hit Shika,

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00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:57.640
one in the neck and three in
her torso. Right after the shooting

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00:22:57.759 --> 00:23:03.160
was over, the Nissan Maxima drove
away from the scene, and so did

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00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:07.400
twenty five year old Ray Caruth.
Later, the driver of that Maxima would

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00:23:07.400 --> 00:23:12.000
tell authorities that he noticed something odd
as he left Shiika to die, and

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00:23:12.039 --> 00:23:18.160
that was Serika's break lights they were
on. The driver wondered if Sherika wasn't

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00:23:18.200 --> 00:23:22.480
dead, because if she was,
wouldn't her body have gone slack, making

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00:23:22.519 --> 00:23:27.640
it impossible to press on the brakes, But the driver was too preoccupied to

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give it much thought as he vanished
into the night. At twelve thirty one

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00:23:33.160 --> 00:23:37.799
am, Sika, who was not
dead, pulled her vehicle into the nearest

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00:23:37.799 --> 00:23:41.880
front yard. She leaned on her
horn, and she called nine one one

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00:23:41.880 --> 00:23:48.039
with her cell phone. After Ray
Caruth heard five gunshots aimed at the mother

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00:23:48.079 --> 00:23:52.119
of his child's car and drove away. He did not call the police,

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00:23:52.640 --> 00:23:56.319
He did not notify a hospital.
As far as we know, he did

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00:23:56.359 --> 00:24:00.720
not tell a single soul that Sharika
needed help, and he didn't go to

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00:24:00.759 --> 00:24:06.200
Shirika's apartment, which was his original
destination when he left his house with her

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00:24:06.279 --> 00:24:11.680
behind him. Instead, her court
documents, Ray went to his football teammate,

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00:24:11.039 --> 00:24:17.799
Hannibal Navy's home and they played video
games. Remember Hannibal was the guy

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00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:22.240
they went on a double date with
that night. Meanwhile, Sika Adams was

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00:24:22.279 --> 00:24:29.240
bleeding out. Somehow she had maneuvered
her car into someone's front yard and driveway.

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That was where she called nine one
one. Sureka stayed on the phone

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00:24:33.319 --> 00:24:38.359
with the nine one one operator and
dispatcher for twelve minutes, and the information

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00:24:38.519 --> 00:24:45.160
she provided during those twelve minutes was
absolutely vital to the ensuing investigation and to

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00:24:45.240 --> 00:24:51.440
saving her unborn child's life. Here
are some small snips of that call.

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00:24:52.359 --> 00:24:56.160
The full transcript is in today's source
list on my website, Southern Fried Truecrime

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00:24:56.200 --> 00:25:03.480
dot com My one. You know
not where are you at now? I

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00:25:03.759 --> 00:25:19.640
made that just happened. I was
putting me and he put down and I

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00:25:19.680 --> 00:25:23.039
think he did it. I don't
know what to think of all right?

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00:25:23.079 --> 00:25:37.119
What did they okay? What did
name name? At twelve forty three,

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00:25:37.160 --> 00:25:41.920
a m officer, Peter Grant arrived
on the scene. Srika told him the

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00:25:41.960 --> 00:25:47.599
situation exactly as it happened. She
explained how she and Ray had gone to

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00:25:47.640 --> 00:25:49.839
the movies, how they had returned
to Ray's house to get her car,

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00:25:51.359 --> 00:25:56.680
and how she had followed him to
her apartment. Serika explained that Ray had

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00:25:56.680 --> 00:26:00.480
slowed down, blocked her car in, and that a vehicle had come up

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00:26:00.480 --> 00:26:07.119
beside her. Then someone in that
vehicle had shot at her. When Officer

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00:26:07.160 --> 00:26:11.599
Grant asked her, did your boyfriend
do this to you? Sreka nodded yes.

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00:26:12.960 --> 00:26:17.720
By one ten am, she was
at the Carolinas Medical Center, where

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00:26:17.720 --> 00:26:22.440
a trauma team was waiting for her. Right away. She underwent two surgeries,

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00:26:22.440 --> 00:26:27.519
an emergency cesarean section and another to
remove the bullets from her body and

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00:26:27.640 --> 00:26:33.480
attempt to repair the massive damage they
had caused. At one two am,

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00:26:33.839 --> 00:26:38.880
less than ninety minutes after Sharika had
been ambushed, Chancellor Lee Adams was brought

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00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:45.440
into this world. He was ten
weeks premature, three pounds and eleven ounces.

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00:26:45.559 --> 00:26:51.839
Immediately following his birth, doctors described
his condition as fair, but he

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00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:57.920
did have brain damage due to oxygen
deprivation. Later, as doctors feared Chancellor

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00:26:57.960 --> 00:27:03.960
would be diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
By four am, Sriika was in the

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00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:10.920
trauma intensive care unit. On Chancellor's
birth certificate, the box under father was

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00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:15.720
left blank, and Sondra later said
that Sharika had planned to name her baby

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00:27:15.119 --> 00:27:21.319
Chancellor Lee Caruth, but at the
hospital she changed her mind and put her

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00:27:21.359 --> 00:27:26.519
own last name on the birth certificate. Three hours later, an endotracheal tube

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00:27:26.559 --> 00:27:32.759
had to be put down her throat
so she could breathe. Then Serika couldn't

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00:27:32.759 --> 00:27:37.359
speak. The morning, nurse Tracy
Willard asked Shika if she could remember what

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00:27:37.480 --> 00:27:41.880
happened. Sharika nodded and wrote down
the events on a piece of paper.

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00:27:42.799 --> 00:27:48.839
Later on, her father spoke to
her he explicitly asked, in no uncertain

327
00:27:48.960 --> 00:27:52.799
terms, were there any stop signs
on this road that could have given ray

328
00:27:52.839 --> 00:27:57.359
a good reason to stop? Sharika
shook her head no. Not long after

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00:27:57.440 --> 00:28:02.880
all this, doctors and she had
to rest and gave her medication to help

330
00:28:02.880 --> 00:28:07.319
her go to sleep. Serika fell
into a coma and never woke up.

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00:28:07.839 --> 00:28:14.160
She had sustained damage to her spleen, pancreas, large and small intestine,

332
00:28:14.359 --> 00:28:18.359
stomach, and liver. She was
losing blood at a rate of six liters

333
00:28:18.400 --> 00:28:25.680
per day. Scott Fowler for the
Charlotte Observer reported that the hospital staff had

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00:28:25.680 --> 00:28:30.079
initially believed that Sika would live,
but the chancellor would not make it.

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00:28:30.440 --> 00:28:37.960
But after losing consciousness that last time, Shriika went downhill fast. For nearly

336
00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:42.400
four weeks, she was on life
support. Her body retained so much fluid

337
00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:48.480
that her weight more than doubled.
She weighed one hundred and twenty pounds,

338
00:28:48.880 --> 00:28:52.759
eight months pregnant, and about two
hundred and eighty after she swelled so severely

339
00:28:52.799 --> 00:28:59.720
with fluid. She did not even
look like herself anymore, and there was

340
00:28:59.720 --> 00:29:06.640
no hope. She showed no sign
of recovering. On Tuesday, December fourteenth,

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00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:11.799
nineteen ninety nine, at twelve forty
three pm, Shika's family made the

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00:29:11.880 --> 00:29:18.359
unimaginable decision to let her go.
Her funeral services were held at eleven am

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00:29:18.440 --> 00:29:23.640
on Saturday, December eighteenth at the
Victory Christian Center. More than one thousand

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00:29:23.640 --> 00:29:30.319
people attended. They released twenty four
purple balloons to recognize Shirika's twenty four years

345
00:29:30.319 --> 00:29:34.680
of life. She was buried in
the Sunset Memory Gardens of Mint Hill,

346
00:29:36.200 --> 00:29:42.359
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Serika
was survived by many family members, including

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00:29:42.400 --> 00:29:48.160
her son, Chancellor Lee, who
was doing well. He had been moved

348
00:29:48.160 --> 00:29:52.480
out of neonatal care earlier that month
and he was in the care of Shika's

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00:29:52.519 --> 00:29:56.799
mother, Sondra. Hours after Shika
was brought to the hospital for treatment,

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00:29:57.400 --> 00:30:06.119
Ray arrived. Adams angrily says in
interviews that he showed up with an entourage.

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00:30:06.200 --> 00:30:11.240
He came with his friend Hannibal Navi's
Hannibal's girlfriend, and unbelievably, Ray

352
00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:17.920
actually brought another woman with him.
Her name was Candace Smith. According to

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00:30:17.960 --> 00:30:22.480
Serika's mother's interviews with The Charlotte Observer, Ray sat between Candace's legs as they

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00:30:22.519 --> 00:30:30.279
waited for news about Sharika, she
rubbed his shoulders. Sondra later said that

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00:30:30.400 --> 00:30:34.880
Ray did not ask her how either
Sharika or the baby were doing, but

356
00:30:34.960 --> 00:30:38.079
he did later ask to take a
photo of the baby, even though he

357
00:30:38.119 --> 00:30:44.000
didn't want to touch his son,
which is sadly ironic because, according to

358
00:30:44.079 --> 00:30:48.440
neonatal doctor Dosha Hickey, even though
Ray Caruth insisted on a paternity test,

359
00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:56.319
she and the other nurses believed the
tiny baby looked just like him. I'm

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yourself to Honeylove because you deserve it. Homicide Detective Darryl Price and Sergeant Tom

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Athey arrived at the hospital at around
seven am to talk to the Adams family

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and to carefully confront Ray Caruth,
who was still in the waiting room.

394
00:33:37.680 --> 00:33:42.920
The police had heard Sharika's desperate nine
one one call. That's how they knew

395
00:33:42.920 --> 00:33:47.119
to Approachray without letting him know about
the nine to one one call or its

396
00:33:47.160 --> 00:33:52.680
contents. They asked him what he
knew about the situation. Ray denied knowing

397
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anything. The police wanted to take
him in for questioning, but later that

398
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same day, Ray had hired a
will known Charlotte defense attorney, George Laughren.

399
00:34:02.599 --> 00:34:09.280
Lawfren immediately stopped him from participating in
a police interview, but before Ray

400
00:34:09.320 --> 00:34:14.760
lawyered up, he had let the
police search his vehicle and phone. The

401
00:34:14.920 --> 00:34:19.960
SUV did not provide much, if
any, usable evidence. However, Ray's

402
00:34:19.960 --> 00:34:24.039
phone was another story. The investigators
wrote down Ray's recently called phone numbers.

403
00:34:24.760 --> 00:34:30.440
Later, the police with subpoena more
of Ray's phone records, along with Shirikas.

404
00:34:30.280 --> 00:34:35.679
Ray's cell phone records led law enforcement
to twenty four year old Michael Eugene

405
00:34:35.760 --> 00:34:39.440
Kennedy. During his court testimony,
he admitted that he was a drug dealer

406
00:34:39.440 --> 00:34:45.840
by trade. According to sources from
the Washington Post, Ray had known Michael

407
00:34:45.880 --> 00:34:49.320
for less than a year. They
had met in nineteen ninety nine, sometime

408
00:34:49.360 --> 00:34:53.480
around January or February, they crossed
paths at a car parks shop. As

409
00:34:53.480 --> 00:34:59.039
soon as the police identified Michael's phone
number from Ray's phone, they contacted him

410
00:34:59.559 --> 00:35:04.239
and with an a week Michael had
told the authorities everything as it happened.

411
00:35:05.559 --> 00:35:09.440
According to the testimony of Michael and
others, Ray had planned Sherika's murder from

412
00:35:09.519 --> 00:35:15.599
months, just like with Michelle and
Amber. He did not want to pay

413
00:35:15.639 --> 00:35:20.199
Shika child support, and since she
would not have an abortion, he decided

414
00:35:20.199 --> 00:35:23.639
to ever killed. On the night
of Shika's murder, at about seven or

415
00:35:23.639 --> 00:35:28.519
eight o'clock, Ray called Michael.
He asked him to come over and watch

416
00:35:28.559 --> 00:35:31.880
a football game, but this request
was a ruse. Ray wasn't interested in

417
00:35:31.920 --> 00:35:36.960
watching football for an hour or so
before his date with Sharika. He wanted

418
00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:40.199
Michael to get a car that wouldn't
draw attention, one that they could use

419
00:35:40.280 --> 00:35:46.519
to kill Shirka in a seemingly random
drive by shooting. Michael soon showed up

420
00:35:46.519 --> 00:35:51.480
at Ray's house driving a rented Nissan
Maxima, and he brought a friend of

421
00:35:51.519 --> 00:35:57.000
his, nineteen year old Stanley Drew
Abraham Junior. Stanley and Michael became best

422
00:35:57.000 --> 00:36:00.840
friends when they were neighbors in Charlotte
described them to be as close as brothers,

423
00:36:01.440 --> 00:36:06.840
and Stanley, like Michael, was
also a drug dealer. After Michael

424
00:36:06.840 --> 00:36:10.079
and Stanley arrived at Ray's house,
Stanley went inside and waited while Ray and

425
00:36:10.119 --> 00:36:16.039
Michael talked outside. Then a man
who neither Michael or Stanley knew showed up.

426
00:36:17.000 --> 00:36:21.679
It was thirty nine year old Van
Brett Watkins from Brooklyn, New York.

427
00:36:22.119 --> 00:36:27.519
According to the North Carolina Department of
Corrections, Watkins also went by the

428
00:36:27.559 --> 00:36:32.440
alias William Edward Watkins, which was
his dead brother's name. Later, Watkins

429
00:36:32.559 --> 00:36:36.920
of tel authorities, that's who he
was. He had even given them his

430
00:36:36.960 --> 00:36:42.480
brother's birth date. For weeks,
there was misreporting around watkins name and age,

431
00:36:42.840 --> 00:36:45.320
but we've got it correct here.
He was born in nineteen sixty,

432
00:36:45.760 --> 00:36:50.440
his name was Van Brett Watkins,
and he was thirty nine at the time

433
00:36:50.559 --> 00:36:54.840
Shriika Adams was murdered. Watkins was
a big guy. He was six foot

434
00:36:54.880 --> 00:37:00.000
four inches tall and two hundred and
eighty six pounds, and he prided himself

435
00:37:00.360 --> 00:37:06.519
on being both massive and scary.
During his later testimony, Watkins would tell

436
00:37:06.599 --> 00:37:10.119
Ray's lawyer David Rudolph, I would
rip you like a rag doll. I've

437
00:37:10.119 --> 00:37:15.159
seen so many people exaggerate and say
he threatened Rudolf, but if you watch

438
00:37:15.159 --> 00:37:19.559
it, it's more like bragging.
He was a big guy who liked to

439
00:37:19.559 --> 00:37:24.000
intimidate people. While Watkins did spend
some time working in construction, he was

440
00:37:24.119 --> 00:37:29.400
primarily a career criminal. By the
time he was in his late thirties,

441
00:37:29.639 --> 00:37:34.239
he already had five felonies under his
belt. They included gun possession, assault,

442
00:37:34.480 --> 00:37:37.559
and threatening to kill people. When
he was incarcerated in the state of

443
00:37:37.559 --> 00:37:42.679
New York, he once lit an
inmate on fire for speaking poorly about one

444
00:37:42.719 --> 00:37:47.320
of his female family members. Her
court documents, Watkins had also pistol whipped

445
00:37:47.320 --> 00:37:51.800
a man, threatened his own wife
with a meat cleaver, and stabbed his

446
00:37:51.840 --> 00:37:57.760
brother. During interviews with Scott Fowler
and many others, Watkins bragged that he

447
00:37:57.800 --> 00:38:02.320
had killed four men for contract killings. Police were not able to verify this

448
00:38:02.440 --> 00:38:07.599
claim, and Watkins never offered to
help solve any related cold cases. But

449
00:38:07.760 --> 00:38:12.280
really, he has given a lot
of interviews over the years. You can

450
00:38:12.280 --> 00:38:16.599
pull up all kinds of YouTube videos
and watch him bragging about bullshit. Ray

451
00:38:16.599 --> 00:38:21.800
met Watkins at a strip club in
nineteen ninety nine. Watkins was the bouncer

452
00:38:21.880 --> 00:38:24.760
at the door and Ray was a
customer, And when Ray needed a fence

453
00:38:24.800 --> 00:38:30.440
built at his home, a mutual
friend connected him to Watkins. Watkins was

454
00:38:30.440 --> 00:38:34.400
supposed to give Ray a cost estimate
for the construction work, but the fence

455
00:38:34.480 --> 00:38:38.440
was never built. In another one
of his charming interviews, he said that

456
00:38:38.519 --> 00:38:45.480
this building of fence stuff with Ray
was actually code for killing Sharika. He

457
00:38:45.559 --> 00:38:49.239
said Ray kept saying he needed to
hurry up with the fence because he didn't

458
00:38:49.239 --> 00:38:52.920
want the dog to get out.
Watkins said the dog was code for his

459
00:38:52.039 --> 00:38:59.159
unborn son. He wanted Sharika dead
before she gave birth. But according to

460
00:38:59.159 --> 00:39:02.800
the Washington Posts, Watkins did complete
other odd jobs for Ray. Some of

461
00:39:02.840 --> 00:39:08.119
these tasks included washing and detailing raised
to vehicles. By the summer of nineteen

462
00:39:08.199 --> 00:39:13.599
ninety nine, the two men had
developed at least a working business relationship.

463
00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:20.880
In an exclusive interview, Watkins told
journalist Scott Fowler that Ray asked Watkins how

464
00:39:20.920 --> 00:39:22.760
much would it take to beat up
a girl and make her aboard her baby,

465
00:39:23.400 --> 00:39:28.119
to which Watkins responded, I don't
beat up girls, I kill people.

466
00:39:29.440 --> 00:39:36.960
This conversation was also verified by Michael
Kennedy's court testimony later on. Eventually,

467
00:39:37.519 --> 00:39:40.320
Ray and Watkins settled on a price
of six thousand dollars for the contract

468
00:39:40.400 --> 00:39:49.599
killing and the orchestration of Serika's murder. Began, I'm going to pause now

469
00:39:49.639 --> 00:39:58.119
for a short commercial break. On
the evening that Sharika was shot, Watkins

470
00:39:58.159 --> 00:40:02.239
arrived at Ray's house. Michael and
Stanley were already there. According to court

471
00:40:02.280 --> 00:40:07.280
transcripts, no one had a gun. Watkins later told the Charlotte Observer he

472
00:40:07.320 --> 00:40:12.039
hadn't brought a gun on purpose.
He was hesitant to do the hit because

473
00:40:12.079 --> 00:40:15.800
he was averse to murdering women.
However, he felt pressure to complete the

474
00:40:15.880 --> 00:40:20.719
job. He claimed he was worried
Ray new gang related people who would harm

475
00:40:20.840 --> 00:40:24.239
him or his loved ones if he
didn't. At this time, Watkins had

476
00:40:24.239 --> 00:40:30.079
a girlfriend and at least one child. I think this is more crap,

477
00:40:30.360 --> 00:40:32.280
and that he probably didn't want to
be the one to procure the gun so

478
00:40:32.360 --> 00:40:37.760
it couldn't be traced back to him. But it didn't matter whether or not

479
00:40:37.800 --> 00:40:40.800
Watkins had brought a gun. Michael
briefly left to purchase one from a friend

480
00:40:42.039 --> 00:40:45.960
for one hundred dollars. Ray gave
him the money. Then Michael returned with

481
00:40:46.039 --> 00:40:52.320
a three fifty seven caliber Charter Arms
revolver and a box of bullets. Watkins

482
00:40:52.400 --> 00:40:55.719
loaded the gun with as many bullets
as it would hold, which was five,

483
00:40:57.239 --> 00:41:00.159
then he disposed of the rest of
the bullets. While Ray and the

484
00:41:00.159 --> 00:41:05.840
three other men were preparing for Serika's
murder and Ray's home, Serika was there,

485
00:41:06.440 --> 00:41:08.840
at least for part of their planning. She had arrived at Ray's house

486
00:41:08.840 --> 00:41:14.360
for the movie date. At nine
fifteen pm. She was on the phone

487
00:41:14.360 --> 00:41:19.079
with her mother, Sondra. Serika
told Sondra that she was worried about why

488
00:41:19.159 --> 00:41:22.159
Ray had all these people at his
house. She also noticed Ray had been

489
00:41:22.199 --> 00:41:27.039
on the phone a lot. He
was obviously trying to discuss something in secret.

490
00:41:27.800 --> 00:41:31.480
Serika told her mother she thought Ray
was talking to another woman. Right

491
00:41:31.480 --> 00:41:35.480
as she was about to bail in
the movie, Ray said it was time

492
00:41:35.480 --> 00:41:40.039
to go, and Serika went.
While they were at the movies with Hannibal

493
00:41:40.119 --> 00:41:45.760
Navies and his girlfriend Watkins, Michael
and Stanley got into the rental car.

494
00:41:45.360 --> 00:41:50.840
Michael was driving. Stanley was in
the front passenger seat, and Watkins,

495
00:41:50.960 --> 00:41:52.960
who was to be the shooter,
was in the back seat. He wore

496
00:41:53.000 --> 00:41:59.480
gloves. The three men in the
car communicated with Ray via cell phone throughout

497
00:41:59.480 --> 00:42:04.079
the evening. That's how they knew
where Ray and Shrika were. During the

498
00:42:04.119 --> 00:42:08.639
movie, the three men drove around
to kill time. During later court proceedings,

499
00:42:08.840 --> 00:42:13.760
Stanley's lawyers would assert that Stanley had
no idea that they were riding around

500
00:42:13.760 --> 00:42:19.280
to go fulfill a hit on Shrika
Adams. The Washington Post reported that his

501
00:42:19.400 --> 00:42:23.239
attorney said he was in the wrong
place at the wrong time. Stanley's council

502
00:42:23.280 --> 00:42:27.599
would assert that he thought he and
Michael were going out in the town that

503
00:42:27.719 --> 00:42:31.960
night, and according to Michael's police
interviews, there is some truth to this.

504
00:42:34.920 --> 00:42:37.679
Michael claimed that Stanley didn't know what
was going on until they stopped at

505
00:42:37.679 --> 00:42:43.079
a gas station while waiting for the
movie to end. After finding out what

506
00:42:43.079 --> 00:42:46.719
they were really doing, Stanley asked
to go home, but Michael wouldn't let

507
00:42:46.760 --> 00:42:51.599
him. He was too afraid of
Watkins to finish this job without his friend

508
00:42:51.599 --> 00:42:55.519
there. As soon as the three
men received word that Ray was leaving to

509
00:42:55.519 --> 00:43:00.280
go to Sherrika's apartment, they got
into position. When Ray slowed down on

510
00:43:00.320 --> 00:43:07.440
that residential street, Michael pulled the
car up beside Sherika's BMW and van Brett

511
00:43:07.440 --> 00:43:12.320
Watkins fired five shots at Shrika Adams, four of them hit the twenty four

512
00:43:12.400 --> 00:43:17.679
year old pregnant woman. Watkins bragged
in multiple televised interviews that he usually would

513
00:43:17.679 --> 00:43:22.119
have killed any witnesses who saw him
shoot someone, but he couldn't he had

514
00:43:22.199 --> 00:43:27.480
used all five bullets in the gun, so afterward, Watkins, Michael,

515
00:43:27.519 --> 00:43:30.840
and Stanley parted ways. Watkins fled
to New York to lay low for a

516
00:43:30.840 --> 00:43:37.000
while, but nine days later he
returned to North Carolina. He stated at

517
00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:40.000
a motel known as the Villager Lodge, and the police had been staking it

518
00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:45.719
out because they saw a phone number
from the lodge listed on Ray's phone records.

519
00:43:45.800 --> 00:43:51.880
When law enforcements saw Watkins, they
recognized him immediately from Michael's descriptions during

520
00:43:51.920 --> 00:43:55.000
police interviews. They picked him up
at about two o'clock in the morning on

521
00:43:55.039 --> 00:44:00.960
November twenty fifth, It was the
early hours of Thanksgiving Day. As soon

522
00:44:00.960 --> 00:44:06.840
as Watkins understood that Michael had already
told the police everything, he also folded.

523
00:44:07.239 --> 00:44:10.800
While the police were questioning him,
twenty five year old Ray Caruth was

524
00:44:10.880 --> 00:44:15.679
arrested at his home. It was
six thirty am. He opened the door

525
00:44:15.719 --> 00:44:20.840
completely naked, and officers said he
had a woman in there with him.

526
00:44:21.519 --> 00:44:25.800
That same Thanksgiving Day, the Carolina
Panthers dismissed Ray from the team. About

527
00:44:25.800 --> 00:44:31.320
one week later, authorities arrested.
Nineteen year old Stanley Abraham, Ray,

528
00:44:31.320 --> 00:44:37.159
Caruth Van Brett, Watkins, Michael
Kennedy, and Stanley Abraham were charged with

529
00:44:37.239 --> 00:44:42.039
conspiracy, attempted murder and related charges. According to The New York Times,

530
00:44:42.239 --> 00:44:45.760
Watkins, Michael, and Stanley's bond
was set at one point five million.

531
00:44:45.519 --> 00:44:49.800
Ray's bond was three million, and
he was the only one who could afford

532
00:44:49.840 --> 00:44:54.000
to post bill. Ray's bond was
granted on two conditions. One he couldn't

533
00:44:54.079 --> 00:44:59.599
leave Charlotte, and two if Sherika
or Chancellor died, he was to turn

534
00:44:59.679 --> 00:45:05.840
himself. But when Serika passed on
Tuesday, December fourteenth, Ray did not

535
00:45:05.920 --> 00:45:09.599
turn himself in. Instead, he
fled the state. For a while,

536
00:45:09.639 --> 00:45:15.639
no one knew his whereabouts. His
mother, Theodrey, gave a nationally televised

537
00:45:15.639 --> 00:45:20.119
interview. She stated that she had
spoken to him recently and that Ray would

538
00:45:20.159 --> 00:45:24.159
turn himself in when he was ready. Police Deputy Chief Larry Snyder said to

539
00:45:24.199 --> 00:45:30.440
AP it's quite obvious the information the
mother was supplying was incorrect. He didn't

540
00:45:30.440 --> 00:45:32.920
turn himself in, and he was
found hundreds of miles away from Charlotte.

541
00:45:35.679 --> 00:45:39.320
Upon learning of Shirka's death, Ray
now officially on the hook for first degree

542
00:45:39.400 --> 00:45:45.360
murder, contacted his friend, Wendy
Cole. Wendy was a hair salon owner

543
00:45:45.360 --> 00:45:50.079
who had known Ray and his family
for quite some time. Wendy was traveling

544
00:45:50.079 --> 00:45:54.199
to California and Ray begged her to
let him come too. She agreed to

545
00:45:54.280 --> 00:45:59.519
let Ray hide on the trunk of
her gray Toyota Camray. Ray took thirty

546
00:45:59.599 --> 00:46:04.239
nine hundred dollars in cash, bottles
for water, bottles for urine, and

547
00:46:04.280 --> 00:46:08.280
some energy bars, and he climbed
into Wendy's trunk. Wendy drove through the

548
00:46:08.360 --> 00:46:13.679
night with Ray in her trunk.
They communicated via cell phone. She made

549
00:46:13.679 --> 00:46:16.239
it five hundred and eleven miles west
of Charlotte, and then she stopped at

550
00:46:16.239 --> 00:46:21.840
a Best Western and Waldersville, Tennessee, to rest. Wendy checked into the

551
00:46:21.840 --> 00:46:24.599
motel and Ray remained in the trunk. When she got to her room,

552
00:46:24.840 --> 00:46:31.599
she called Ray's mother. Wendy told
the Odrey their location. Then Theodrey called

553
00:46:31.679 --> 00:46:36.880
Ray's bell bondsman. She told them
where he was. The bondsmen were worried

554
00:46:37.159 --> 00:46:40.039
that Ray would get away before they
arrived, so, per the arrest affidavit,

555
00:46:40.360 --> 00:46:45.199
they contacted local law enforcement and they
got in touch with the FBI.

556
00:46:45.480 --> 00:46:51.480
At about six forty five pm on
Wednesday, December fifteenth, FBI agents approached

557
00:46:51.480 --> 00:46:55.440
Wendy in her motel room. After
some questioning, the FBI realized that Ray

558
00:46:55.480 --> 00:47:00.840
was hiding in her trunk. Wendy
was initially charged with her bring a fugitive,

559
00:47:00.199 --> 00:47:06.039
but it was later dropped. According
to the Associated Press, Ray surrendered

560
00:47:06.079 --> 00:47:09.119
to the FBI peacefully. By this
point, he had been on Wendy's trunk

561
00:47:09.159 --> 00:47:15.920
for twenty one hours. Surrendering anything
but peacefully would have been hard. The

562
00:47:15.960 --> 00:47:20.480
next day, on Thursday, December
sixteenth, the Panthers officially severed all ties

563
00:47:20.519 --> 00:47:24.360
with Ray, citing a morality clause
in his contract, and the next day

564
00:47:24.599 --> 00:47:31.159
the NFL suspended him indefinitely. Coach
George Seaffert told the Washington Post, Obviously

565
00:47:31.199 --> 00:47:35.199
this has to do with what has
taken place in the last forty eight hours.

566
00:47:35.559 --> 00:47:38.440
We are not trying to demonstrate guilt
or innocence or anything else. It

567
00:47:38.559 --> 00:47:44.239
is just our reaction to what has
taken place. And also on this same

568
00:47:44.320 --> 00:47:47.880
day, the prosecution announced they would
treat Shirika's slang as a capital offense.

569
00:47:49.519 --> 00:47:53.559
They were seeking the death penalty.
If you're wondering how the hell Ray Caruth,

570
00:47:53.679 --> 00:47:58.599
of all people could manage to run, you're not alone. Sergeant Athey

571
00:47:58.679 --> 00:48:00.679
said, quote, We've got a
one hundred thousand things going on in the

572
00:48:00.719 --> 00:48:05.199
city. We don't have the resources
to sit and watch one guy because of

573
00:48:05.239 --> 00:48:08.920
who he is. Like I said
in the opening, Charlotte was in the

574
00:48:08.920 --> 00:48:14.639
middle of a drug epidemic and high
homicide rate. It sounds crazy, but

575
00:48:14.719 --> 00:48:17.800
they didn't think famous Ray Caruth would
run and didn't have the manpower to sit

576
00:48:17.840 --> 00:48:22.039
on him either. I haven't explicitly
said it yet, but I'm sure you've

577
00:48:22.039 --> 00:48:27.639
guessed as much. This case drew
national attention. Even if you don't follow

578
00:48:27.679 --> 00:48:30.440
football, it was hard to avoid
all the coverage. An NFL player who

579
00:48:30.559 --> 00:48:36.039
orchestrated the death of his baby's mother
to avoid child support payments, one who

580
00:48:36.039 --> 00:48:38.880
fled the state when it came time
to face the consequences of his actions.

581
00:48:39.480 --> 00:48:45.960
It was big, big news,
and it came at a time when NFL

582
00:48:45.960 --> 00:48:51.119
football players committing crimes were already in
the public's mind. In October of nineteen

583
00:48:51.199 --> 00:48:54.199
ninety five, only four years before
former Buffalo Bills running back O. J.

584
00:48:54.320 --> 00:49:00.039
Simpson was acquitted for the murders of
Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman. On

585
00:49:00.119 --> 00:49:04.239
January thirty first of two thousand,
less than two months after Shirika's death,

586
00:49:04.559 --> 00:49:08.639
Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis was involved
in an altercation that ended in the deaths

587
00:49:08.679 --> 00:49:15.039
of two men. Lewis pled guilty
to obstruction of justice. So Lewis was

588
00:49:15.079 --> 00:49:20.280
in the press at the exact same
time as Ray. Oj never recovered financially

589
00:49:20.800 --> 00:49:23.760
After several messy years, He went
to prison for armed robbery and kidnapping in

590
00:49:23.800 --> 00:49:27.880
two thousand and seven. He claimed
he was only trying to take back his

591
00:49:27.960 --> 00:49:32.559
stolen memorabilia. Ray Lewis, however, played in the Super Bowl in January

592
00:49:32.559 --> 00:49:37.199
two thousand and one, literally a
week after Ray Kruth's trial would end.

593
00:49:37.679 --> 00:49:40.440
Lewis earned Super Bowl MVP honors as
well as Defensive Player of the Year.

594
00:49:43.599 --> 00:49:46.760
Just like OJ and Lewis's cases,
Ray's case made the front page a lot

595
00:49:47.360 --> 00:49:53.079
newspapers wrote hundreds of articles twenty twenty
released in episode HBO's Bryant Gumbel series.

596
00:49:53.239 --> 00:49:59.320
Real Sports covered it later. Scott
Fowler of The Charlotte Observer would help create

597
00:49:59.320 --> 00:50:02.159
a video docum, a print series, and a seven episode podcast on it.

598
00:50:04.079 --> 00:50:07.559
So yeah, people were aware of
Ray's case then and probably now,

599
00:50:07.079 --> 00:50:14.239
even people who aren't necessarily sports fans. After some decision making by the powers

600
00:50:14.239 --> 00:50:17.800
that be, the co defendants accused
of planning Sherika's murder were to be tried

601
00:50:17.880 --> 00:50:22.800
separately. They were all offered plea
deals, but before Ray's trial, only

602
00:50:22.840 --> 00:50:28.239
Watkins showed interest in one. Ray, Michael, and Stanley did not want

603
00:50:28.239 --> 00:50:37.280
plea deals. I'm going to pause
now for a final commercial break. Ray's

604
00:50:37.320 --> 00:50:42.960
trial was up first. In preparation, he hired a defense attorney we've mentioned

605
00:50:43.000 --> 00:50:46.800
before on this podcast, David Rudolph. Rudolph would go on to represent Michael

606
00:50:46.840 --> 00:50:51.920
Peterson in two thousand and three.
If you're not familiar with the case,

607
00:50:52.119 --> 00:50:54.400
check out my coverage. I did
a four episode series on the death of

608
00:50:54.480 --> 00:51:00.480
Kathleen Peterson and Michael Peterson's trial,
made famous by the Staircase documentary It's My

609
00:51:00.599 --> 00:51:06.119
Longest Deep Dive. I was especially
fascinated by the pop cultural response to the

610
00:51:06.119 --> 00:51:13.119
Peterson case it's episodes one seventy three
to one seventy six. But back to

611
00:51:13.159 --> 00:51:16.480
this case. Twenty six year old
Ray Caruth's trial began on November twentieth,

612
00:51:16.599 --> 00:51:22.039
two thousand, It was just over
a year since Shriika was murdered. The

613
00:51:22.079 --> 00:51:25.960
court proceedings were nationally televised by Court
TV. You can actually watch the whole

614
00:51:25.960 --> 00:51:31.360
thing from start to finish on their
website. The prosecution's case was clear Ray

615
00:51:31.440 --> 00:51:36.480
did not want to pay Shrika child
support for their unborn son, so he

616
00:51:36.559 --> 00:51:40.960
masterminded her death to avoid that.
The state brought twenty witnesses to support their

617
00:51:42.079 --> 00:51:46.920
arguments, including Candace Smith, the
girlfriend Ray had brought to the hospital the

618
00:51:47.000 --> 00:51:52.719
morning after Shirika was ambushed. She
testified that Ray had previously said he wished

619
00:51:52.800 --> 00:52:00.239
Shriika would die, but after Shirika
was shot, Candace asked Ray if he

620
00:52:00.280 --> 00:52:04.119
had anything to do with it.
She said, he wouldn't even look at

621
00:52:04.119 --> 00:52:06.599
me. And he said that he
had been trying to be nice to her

622
00:52:06.880 --> 00:52:09.639
and go to doctor's appointments and give
her money and keep her happy, and

623
00:52:09.719 --> 00:52:13.519
that he had been getting money out
of the bank a little bit at a

624
00:52:13.559 --> 00:52:16.559
time, so it wouldn't look suspicious
to give to the guy. Andy said

625
00:52:16.559 --> 00:52:21.400
he watched the guy well. He
hit his brakes in his car to slow

626
00:52:21.440 --> 00:52:24.039
her down. Andy saw the guy's
pull up and shot into her car,

627
00:52:24.400 --> 00:52:30.199
and he said, I just drove
off and went to Hannibal's house. That's

628
00:52:30.199 --> 00:52:34.559
a confession. Ray Caruth is not
just an evil man, he is an

629
00:52:34.599 --> 00:52:40.679
idiot. Michael Kennedy also testified for
the state. His testimony was extremely valuable

630
00:52:40.960 --> 00:52:45.599
because he did it without the benefit
of a plea deal. There was no

631
00:52:45.760 --> 00:52:49.320
question as to if he was telling
the truth, what would he have gotten

632
00:52:49.360 --> 00:52:53.519
out of Lyne. Michael provided many
of the details I've already shared with you.

633
00:52:54.119 --> 00:53:00.280
He also explained Ray's motive with pinpoint
accuracy. Ray told Michael he was

634
00:53:00.360 --> 00:53:05.039
upset Serika wouldn't have an abortion.
Ray thought she was trying to quote juice

635
00:53:05.079 --> 00:53:07.920
him for money, and that he
was already paying like five thousand in child

636
00:53:07.920 --> 00:53:14.440
support and he didn't want to pay
another five thousand. Van Brett Watkins also

637
00:53:14.519 --> 00:53:17.320
later said in one of his interviews
that Ray said he couldn't be having a

638
00:53:17.360 --> 00:53:22.360
baby with no stripper. I don't
think the bastard cared who was carrying a

639
00:53:22.480 --> 00:53:27.239
child of his. This was his
third shot at being a father, and

640
00:53:27.360 --> 00:53:31.719
each time he railed against it.
I guess he was that damn cheap anyway.

641
00:53:32.199 --> 00:53:37.880
There were also phone records backing up
Michael's testimony, Ray and Watkins had

642
00:53:37.920 --> 00:53:42.400
called each other six times within twenty
four hours of Sharika's murder, and Ray

643
00:53:42.400 --> 00:53:46.800
called Michael multiple times to verify where
he and Serika were at. Michael's testimony

644
00:53:46.920 --> 00:53:53.280
and later Watkins' testimony verified that,
And of course, the most important pieces

645
00:53:53.280 --> 00:53:58.519
of evidence the prosecution brought to the
table where Serika's nine to one one call

646
00:53:58.760 --> 00:54:02.559
discussions with Officer Grid and the notes
she had written to Nurse Willard. In

647
00:54:02.639 --> 00:54:08.039
all three instances, Serika had explained
exactly what had happened leading up to and

648
00:54:08.119 --> 00:54:15.639
during her attack, and all three
times Serika gave close to identical accounts,

649
00:54:15.639 --> 00:54:20.360
and her nine one one call it
was like she was speaking from the grave.

650
00:54:21.199 --> 00:54:24.719
Prosecutor Gentry called ill said she was
the strongest witness for herself to her

651
00:54:24.760 --> 00:54:30.800
own murder, and that was all
the prosecution really needed to nail right of

652
00:54:30.840 --> 00:54:35.039
the wall. Serika had gotten nearly
all of her details right in that call,

653
00:54:35.400 --> 00:54:38.760
including the direction that Ray and Michael
had driven off after the attack they

654
00:54:38.800 --> 00:54:45.800
had gone opposite ways. In response, rai'sed defense counsel, led by Rudolph,

655
00:54:45.159 --> 00:54:50.800
proposed an alternative theory, one that
was based on the testimony of Watkins's

656
00:54:50.880 --> 00:54:54.559
jailer. The jailer claimed that Watkins
had said the whole thing was a drug

657
00:54:54.599 --> 00:54:59.639
deal gone wrong, that Ray had
agreed to buy a large amount of marijuana

658
00:54:59.679 --> 00:55:04.719
from Watkins and then had gone back
on his word. Watkins was mad,

659
00:55:05.079 --> 00:55:08.679
and so he organized the shooting with
Michael Kennedy. That's why Ray wanted to

660
00:55:08.760 --> 00:55:13.679
drive with Shariga back to her apartment, because he was scared of Watkins,

661
00:55:13.719 --> 00:55:19.280
who was supposedly livid about this drug
deal, and he had made multiple phone

662
00:55:19.280 --> 00:55:22.079
calls to Kennedy not to let him
know where he and Shrika were located,

663
00:55:22.440 --> 00:55:28.480
but to see if Watkins had calmed
down. Yet, Watkins has always denied

664
00:55:28.519 --> 00:55:31.039
that he said this, and speaking
of him, he was supposed to be

665
00:55:31.079 --> 00:55:35.119
a witness for the state. It
was actually part of his flea deal,

666
00:55:35.960 --> 00:55:38.679
but he was such a hostile witness
that the state decided not to use him.

667
00:55:39.719 --> 00:55:45.239
But the defense actually called Watkins to
the stand. David Rudolph questioned him

668
00:55:45.239 --> 00:55:49.440
with permission to treat him as a
hostile witness, which seems like a strange

669
00:55:49.440 --> 00:55:54.440
idea because Watkins supported everything Michael had
already testified to but he also tried to

670
00:55:54.480 --> 00:55:59.719
qualify his own guilt, saying he
hired me to kill Serika Adams and the

671
00:55:59.760 --> 00:56:02.320
baby. I couldn't bring myself to
kill the baby. I shot at the

672
00:56:02.320 --> 00:56:07.000
top of the car, not through
the door. First, he doesn't beat

673
00:56:07.039 --> 00:56:12.159
up on women, Now he doesn't
kill babies. JFC. This guy,

674
00:56:13.719 --> 00:56:16.800
Rudolf kept pushing at him because he
didn't carry a gun that night. The

675
00:56:16.960 --> 00:56:21.920
argument was that Caruth had not planned
out this hit, and part of that

676
00:56:22.039 --> 00:56:25.800
proof was that the supposed hitman didn't
even bring a gun that night. He

677
00:56:25.920 --> 00:56:30.039
said, so, you're a hit
man without a gun, goading Watkins until

678
00:56:30.039 --> 00:56:32.840
he basically said, look at me. I don't need a gun. I'm

679
00:56:32.840 --> 00:56:36.960
two hundred and eighty six pounds.
I would rip you like a rag doll.

680
00:56:37.280 --> 00:56:43.280
This was the short scene where folks
say Watkins threatened Rudolf. Rudolf never

681
00:56:43.320 --> 00:56:45.599
said that himself, but he did
say he was glad that the sheriff deputies

682
00:56:45.639 --> 00:56:52.800
were between them. Shortly after that
exchange, Rudolf ended his questioning. I

683
00:56:52.840 --> 00:56:57.199
think his point was to show how
violent Watkins was, perhaps in contrast with

684
00:56:57.280 --> 00:57:00.480
his client, who did have a
clean record up until then, and that

685
00:57:00.599 --> 00:57:06.000
it might also drive home his argument
that the shooting was because Watkins was angry

686
00:57:06.000 --> 00:57:10.320
at Caruth and Shirika was caught in
the middle. He was obviously easily angered.

687
00:57:10.360 --> 00:57:16.159
On the stand, Rudolph also pointed
out that neither Kennedy nor Watkins had

688
00:57:16.159 --> 00:57:22.599
ever been paid. It was a
clever defense, the best Rudolph could have

689
00:57:22.599 --> 00:57:27.079
come up with. It explained all
the phone calls and why Caruth ran that

690
00:57:27.199 --> 00:57:30.360
night, And like I told you
in the opening, Charlotte was experiencing a

691
00:57:30.360 --> 00:57:35.840
record number of homicides due to the
crack epidemic. A drug deal gone bad

692
00:57:36.199 --> 00:57:38.880
wasn't exactly a stretch for Charlotte,
North Carolina. In nineteen ninety nine,

693
00:57:40.559 --> 00:57:45.960
Ray's defense called an additional forty five
witnesses to the stand, most of whom

694
00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:50.679
were there to attest to raise good
character and gentle nature. In rebuttal,

695
00:57:50.920 --> 00:57:57.400
the prosecution introduced the testimony of Ray's
x's Michelle Wright and Amber Turner. They

696
00:57:57.440 --> 00:58:01.960
both corroborated that Ray became angry at
their pregnancies and how he asked them both

697
00:58:02.000 --> 00:58:07.480
to get abortions. Michelle didn't,
but Amber did. It showed a pattern

698
00:58:07.760 --> 00:58:12.800
that Ray Caruth couldn't be bothered to
use birth control, but refused to be

699
00:58:12.840 --> 00:58:17.119
a parent. Amber Turner also provided
the court with the four page letter Ray

700
00:58:17.159 --> 00:58:22.280
had written to her from jail.
In it, he had outlined fifteen things

701
00:58:22.320 --> 00:58:24.519
he wanted her to say in court. He asked her not to talk to

702
00:58:24.559 --> 00:58:29.639
the cops, to his lawyers,
and wrote the words here's what you recall.

703
00:58:30.559 --> 00:58:35.280
Amber said what she was supposed to
recall her Ray was blatantly false.

704
00:58:36.639 --> 00:58:40.840
Stanley Abraham did not testify, neither
did Ray himself. In total, the

705
00:58:40.880 --> 00:58:45.159
trial was six weeks long and the
jury struggled to make a decision. They

706
00:58:45.199 --> 00:58:52.679
deliberated for three days before asking the
judge for additional instruction. The judge's instructions

707
00:58:52.719 --> 00:58:57.719
were, in essence, keep going. Then on January twentieth, two thousand

708
00:58:57.760 --> 00:59:00.599
and one, on Ray's twenty seventh
birthday, the jury made a decision.

709
00:59:01.639 --> 00:59:07.679
After twenty hours of deliberation. The
jury convicted Ray Caruth of conspiracy to commit

710
00:59:07.760 --> 00:59:13.199
murder, discharging a firearm into occupied
property, and attempting to destroy an unborn

711
00:59:13.280 --> 00:59:20.480
child. He was acquitted a first
degree murder. Jury foreman Clark Pannell Junior

712
00:59:20.800 --> 00:59:23.480
said to The New York Times that
they couldn't convict Ray for first degree murder

713
00:59:23.679 --> 00:59:29.679
because all elements of the charge weren't
proven. Basically, Ray hadn't actually pulled

714
00:59:29.679 --> 00:59:34.920
the trigger that killed Shirika. Prosecutor
Gentry called Ill said the jury didn't follow

715
00:59:34.960 --> 00:59:38.719
the law. How can he be
guilty of conspiracy firing into a vehicle and

716
00:59:38.760 --> 00:59:44.079
attempting to kill an unborn child but
not be guilty of the first degree murderer

717
00:59:44.199 --> 00:59:50.400
of that child's mother. Sondra Adams
later said the prosecution was over confident by

718
00:59:50.440 --> 00:59:52.960
not putting second degree murder on the
table. It looks like she might have

719
00:59:53.000 --> 00:59:59.800
been right. Another juror, Jerry
Karst, said Caruth should have been convicted

720
00:59:59.800 --> 01:00:02.760
of first degree murder, but that
there was one holdout durer who would not

721
01:00:02.880 --> 01:00:08.039
convict on first degree. Karst said
he would have voted for the death penalty

722
01:00:08.079 --> 01:00:12.880
if he could have, but because
of the holdout, the compromise verdict.

723
01:00:13.519 --> 01:00:17.400
So it was guilty on every charge
except first degree murder. We don't know

724
01:00:17.440 --> 01:00:21.800
who the holdout was, and maybe
he didn't like that the trigger man got

725
01:00:21.800 --> 01:00:27.320
a plea deal for second degree that
wasn't offered to Caruth. I am a

726
01:00:27.360 --> 01:00:31.239
proponent of kitchen sink charges. I
think it's always safer to give a jury

727
01:00:31.280 --> 01:00:38.320
options when prosecutors refuse. I've seen
this work both ways. Michael Peterson was

728
01:00:38.320 --> 01:00:43.199
convicted with this gamble, but then
won an appeal and took an Alford plea

729
01:00:43.519 --> 01:00:46.679
and got out of prison. I've
got another case I'm about to update this

730
01:00:46.800 --> 01:00:52.000
month, where pretty much the same
thing happened, and in this instance,

731
01:00:52.280 --> 01:00:57.079
the prosecution lost their gamble. That
holdout juror may have been more likely to

732
01:00:57.119 --> 01:01:01.280
convict on a lesser murder charge since
Ray didn't actually pulled the trigger, but

733
01:01:01.639 --> 01:01:06.559
we don't know that for sure.
All we have is that Jerry Cars telling

734
01:01:06.639 --> 01:01:09.199
us that the jury wanted to convict
Ray Caruth all but for one juror.

735
01:01:10.519 --> 01:01:15.159
I'm still with Ms Adams on this
one, and so for the charges he

736
01:01:15.320 --> 01:01:20.480
was convicted of, Ray Caruth was
sentenced to eighteen to twenty four years in

737
01:01:20.519 --> 01:01:23.960
prison. He appealed his conviction once
in two thousand and three, and requested

738
01:01:23.960 --> 01:01:29.840
habeas relief in twenty eleven. Both
were denied. Despite a few issues in

739
01:01:29.880 --> 01:01:36.679
the courtroom, the evidence was overwhelming
that Ray had masterminded Shirika's murder. To

740
01:01:36.719 --> 01:01:40.239
this day, Ray has never admitted
his guilt, though he has apologized to

741
01:01:40.280 --> 01:01:46.400
Sharika's family. He has given differing
interviews, one where he refused to accept

742
01:01:46.519 --> 01:01:52.960
any responsibility after about fourteen years in
prison, even being the reason that Sharika

743
01:01:52.079 --> 01:01:57.840
was near these men he associated with. But later he has also said things

744
01:01:57.880 --> 01:02:01.440
like he is responsible for the situation, but not that he actually planned it,

745
01:02:02.920 --> 01:02:07.199
and he is now a freeman.
He was released from prison in twenty

746
01:02:07.280 --> 01:02:13.719
eighteen at the age of forty four. He had been incarcerated for eighteen years.

747
01:02:14.920 --> 01:02:17.320
Van Brett Watkins, the shooter,
took a plea deal for second degree

748
01:02:17.400 --> 01:02:22.639
murder, conspiracy, and other charges, and was sentenced to fifty years in

749
01:02:22.639 --> 01:02:28.239
prison. Michael Kennedy, the driver, was convicted of second degree murder and

750
01:02:28.320 --> 01:02:31.800
other related charges and spent almost fifteen
years in prison. He was only thirty

751
01:02:31.840 --> 01:02:37.119
six when he was released, with
his whole life ahead of him. Stanley

752
01:02:37.159 --> 01:02:40.119
Abraham, Michael's buddy, who got
roped in wound up pleading guilty to a

753
01:02:40.199 --> 01:02:46.000
lesser accessory charge and spent ninety days
in jail. In October of two thousand

754
01:02:46.039 --> 01:02:50.800
and three, Serika's mother, Sondra, won a civil lawsuit against Ray,

755
01:02:50.960 --> 01:02:54.679
Watkins, Michael, and Stanley for
five point eight million dollars. None of

756
01:02:54.679 --> 01:03:00.000
the four men contested the lawsuit,
likely because they won't ever have enough money

757
01:03:00.119 --> 01:03:05.079
to pay it. The former NFL
player's bank accounts were depleted by the time

758
01:03:05.079 --> 01:03:08.519
his trial started. A defense by
the likes of David Rudolph ain't cheap,

759
01:03:09.559 --> 01:03:13.880
but by the time Ray got to
trial, he was broke. His house

760
01:03:13.960 --> 01:03:17.039
was sold at auction, he was
declared indigent, and Rudolph and his team

761
01:03:17.280 --> 01:03:22.400
were instructed to stay on as public
defenders. During the hearing for this civil

762
01:03:22.480 --> 01:03:29.159
lawsuit, Stanley, Michael and Watkins
apologized, Ray, who was in the

763
01:03:29.199 --> 01:03:32.880
midst of an appeal, remained silent, though it's obvious he wouldn't have apologized

764
01:03:32.880 --> 01:03:38.960
then anyway. Watkins claimed he had
turned down book deals to avoid making money

765
01:03:39.000 --> 01:03:44.719
off of this regretful situation. Again, this is bullshitting. Because of the

766
01:03:44.760 --> 01:03:47.239
civil suit, any money he made
would have gone to Sondra and Chancellor.

767
01:03:47.400 --> 01:03:50.960
So if he was sorry, why
not write a book and help them?

768
01:03:52.039 --> 01:03:54.719
To be fair? Watkins said,
according to ESPN, when I do get

769
01:03:54.760 --> 01:03:58.920
money from my family, I try
to help. If I do get some,

770
01:03:59.159 --> 01:04:02.519
I'll be glad to send you some
money. Sondra reported that Watkins has

771
01:04:02.559 --> 01:04:08.199
sent her checks for five dollars and
ten dollars. She believes he was remorseful.

772
01:04:09.559 --> 01:04:13.639
Van Brett Watkins died in prison on
December third, twenty twenty three,

773
01:04:13.880 --> 01:04:16.960
at the age of sixty three.
The doc said his death was due to

774
01:04:17.039 --> 01:04:23.920
natural causes. In twenty twenty one, twenty one year old Chancellor Lee Adams

775
01:04:24.119 --> 01:04:28.119
graduated from a Charlotte area high school. He spent four years on the high

776
01:04:28.159 --> 01:04:32.920
school's Exceptional Children's program. Two additional
years were in a transition program that taught

777
01:04:32.920 --> 01:04:40.039
life skills. Sondra has told journalists
that she is certain Serika would be overjoyed

778
01:04:40.079 --> 01:04:45.559
at Chancellor's accomplishments. He is,
by the accounts of many televised interviews,

779
01:04:45.880 --> 01:04:50.239
a very happy guy who is living
his best life. Ray did actually express

780
01:04:50.239 --> 01:04:57.800
interest in being involved in Chancellor's life. This became public knowledge when Ray,

781
01:04:57.920 --> 01:05:02.360
who was still incarcerated, sent the
day WBTV news station a fifteen page handwritten

782
01:05:02.440 --> 01:05:09.320
letter in early twenty eighteen. Inn
said letter Ray suggested he would seek custody

783
01:05:09.320 --> 01:05:14.239
of Chancellor once Sondra had passed.
Since then, he has rescinded that suggestion.

784
01:05:15.239 --> 01:05:18.199
He now says he will only be
in Chancellor's life if it feels comfortable

785
01:05:18.239 --> 01:05:25.480
for Sondra and Chancellor's close family.
But as it stands currently, Ray and

786
01:05:25.559 --> 01:05:30.840
Chancellor do not have a relationship,
although Sondra had said her heart was softening

787
01:05:30.840 --> 01:05:35.440
towards him at one point. Sondra
Adams is a deeply Christian woman who has

788
01:05:35.480 --> 01:05:40.960
said in many interviews that she has
forgiven the men responsible for her daughter's murder.

789
01:05:41.960 --> 01:05:45.000
She also gave an interview saying she
wanted people to know that Caruth had

790
01:05:45.039 --> 01:05:49.000
sent a few thousand dollars for the
support of Chancellor, though it was through

791
01:05:49.000 --> 01:05:55.480
the court system and he had not
reached out personally. He was probably required

792
01:05:55.519 --> 01:05:59.440
to send her any money he had
received because of the civil suit. Why

793
01:05:59.480 --> 01:06:03.880
else would it go through the court
if Ray was just being magnanimous. I

794
01:06:03.920 --> 01:06:09.119
am obviously glad she got some support
from Caruth, But other than that,

795
01:06:09.320 --> 01:06:14.360
I'll just say that miss Adams is
a much better woman than me. Ray

796
01:06:14.360 --> 01:06:17.480
Caruth had his twenty four year old
girlfriend murdered because she refused to get an

797
01:06:17.519 --> 01:06:21.960
abortion. This was the third woman
he had gotten pregnant and tried to pressure

798
01:06:21.960 --> 01:06:28.119
into an abortion. It only worked
once with Amber. Maybe the son of

799
01:06:28.159 --> 01:06:31.440
a bitch should have tried using condoms
if he was so violently opposed to being

800
01:06:31.480 --> 01:06:36.320
a father. Van Brett Watkins died
in prison, and frankly, that's where

801
01:06:36.400 --> 01:06:42.239
Ray Caruth deserved to die. But
he is a free man now. He

802
01:06:42.360 --> 01:06:46.360
might not be a millionaire, but
he still walks this earth. He turned

803
01:06:46.400 --> 01:06:54.000
fifty years old last month and very
much enjoys his anonymity. Serika Adams would

804
01:06:54.000 --> 01:06:58.079
be forty eight years old today.
She might have had more children, she

805
01:06:58.119 --> 01:07:01.280
could have even been a grandmother by
now. All of that was stolen from

806
01:07:01.280 --> 01:07:05.639
her, and she was stolen from
her son, her adoring mother, and

807
01:07:05.719 --> 01:07:11.880
countless family and friends. And while
I feel Ray Caruth should be writing in

808
01:07:11.920 --> 01:07:15.480
prison, he could have gotten off
scot free if Serika had not been so

809
01:07:15.639 --> 01:07:19.280
brave and strong, not only on
the nine to one one call, but

810
01:07:19.360 --> 01:07:25.320
also in the hospital as she was
fighting for her life. I keep hearing

811
01:07:25.360 --> 01:07:34.719
her pitiful voice on that call,
Ray Caruth Number eighty nine. Southern Fried

812
01:07:34.800 --> 01:07:40.159
True Crime is hosted and produced by
me Erica Kelly. Today's episode was researched

813
01:07:40.199 --> 01:07:44.599
and written by me and Andrea Marshbank. As usual, any editorial comments and

814
01:07:44.639 --> 01:07:47.639
opinions are my own. Southern Fred's
original music is by Rob Harrison of Gamma

815
01:07:47.719 --> 01:07:53.400
Radio and the original graphic artist by
Kully Horner. Today's case was suggested by

816
01:07:53.400 --> 01:07:58.480
Greg Husketh, Patty Hannah, and
Terarina. If you have any case suggestions,

817
01:07:58.480 --> 01:08:01.239
please go to my website, Southern
Fried Truecrime dot com and click on

818
01:08:01.280 --> 01:08:08.960
the listeners suggestion tab or email SFTC
Research at gmail dot com. This is

819
01:08:09.000 --> 01:08:12.039
the best way for me to get
those little known cases. Y'all always send

820
01:08:12.079 --> 01:08:15.119
me. Please remember I do not
accept suggestions on social media private messages,

821
01:08:15.359 --> 01:08:19.399
but please come join our Facebook group, Southern Fried True Crime Fans Discussion Group,

822
01:08:19.720 --> 01:08:25.119
where we swap recipes, worship Dolly
Parton, and share memes. We

823
01:08:25.199 --> 01:08:27.840
do, of course discuss true crime, not just Southern Fried, but all

824
01:08:27.920 --> 01:08:30.680
kinds, but it is still very
much a Southern lifestyle group. Our group

825
01:08:30.800 --> 01:08:32.920
is a safe from phone corner of
Facebook, and by god, we mean

826
01:08:32.920 --> 01:08:35.640
it when we say no shit aus
is allowed. It's not just a motto,

827
01:08:35.680 --> 01:08:39.960
it's how we run the group.
If you enjoy today's show, don't

828
01:08:39.960 --> 01:08:43.720
forget to subscribe and please tell a
friend or rate and review. I'm also

829
01:08:43.800 --> 01:08:46.520
on all large platforms like iTunes,
iHeart, Spotify, Amazon, audible and

830
01:08:46.600 --> 01:08:51.199
now YouTube. Until next time,
Thanks so much for listening, y'all,

831
01:08:51.239 --> 01:08:51.680
Take care,