October 16, 2018 • 33 mins
As funeral arrangements are made in Charlotte, Rae Carruth flees the state. Soon, he’s the target of an FBI manhunt led by agent Mark Post, who recreates for us the trail that led him to a motel parking lot in rural Tennessee, where he found Carruth in the trunk of a Toyota Camry. Soon, Carruth becomes the first active NFL player to be charged with first-degree murder.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A listener. Note this story contains adult language and some
graphic descriptions of violence. Previously on Ruth, the phone rang
and they were like, your daughter is at the hospital.
She's been shot. It is miraculous that he survived because
(00:21):
Shrika was in very bad shape when she came in. Finally,
Ray comes in with another woman. This was very new
at the time cellphone triangulation, and we could put Ray's
cell phone where she was shot. Her bought pressure was down,
she was hypotensive. When that happens, the baby doesn't get
oxygen and that causes brain damage. She was existing, she
(00:45):
was not living, So I didn't have to think long
on making that decision. Uh, And I knew, and I
know she knew that her son was in good hands. Wildersville, Tennessee,
(01:08):
is due west of Charlotte on Interstate forty, some eight
hours and five miles by car. To get there, you
wine past vague locations like buck Snort and Sugar Tree,
and drive past the cornfields and the cracker barrels. Halfway
between Nashville and Memphis. It's the sort of place you
might stop for a few hours of rest on a
cross country drive every so often. Civil War reenactors gathered
(01:32):
nearby to commemorate the Battle of Parker's Crossroads, when Confederate
General Nathan Bedford Forest escaped captured by Union soldiers. But
in n this stretch of I forty had another brush
with history in an unassuming roadside motel that was at
the time a best Western. This is where on December
(01:57):
Carolina panther Ray Caruth was found in the feet total
position in the trunk of a gray Toyota camera, his
pants around his knees. Ray Caru, who helped plan the
got escape. Was this not the admitted to ever? Back
then the original kings of comedy couldn't resist and Steve
(02:19):
Harvey had a Charlotte audience rolling with laughter. When you
running from the law, you want to get a passport,
Ray Reay to your das nash fel like they ain't
gonna spatch your black less and nash Feld, the man
doing the spotting, turned out to be FBI agent Mark Post.
He was eating oatmeal that Wednesday morning when a famous
(02:41):
fugitive practically showed up on his doorstep. I saw a
segment on Good Morning America. Ray Kruth fled the state,
and to myself, I said, I wonder where he's had
it from the Charlotte Observer in McClatchy Studios. This is Caruth.
I'm Scott Fowler, and this is chapter four the man Hunt.
(03:14):
To understand how Caruth arrived in Tennessee, we need to
take a step back. In early December, family and friends
have been keeping vigil at Sharika Adams's bedside. Sergeant Tom
Athey and his team of homicide detectives have been racing
to find out who shot her. Remember there was a
money and tell us what happened. I would you to
(03:36):
be honest with us. Michael Kennedy, the driver in the
car that carried out the drive by shooting, had already
told authorities his version of the story. He had also
painted a picture of Van Brett Watkins, whom Kennedy knew
only as William the alias Watkins had used, Yeah, he's
my man. Arrived at you. He was talking about will
(03:56):
and he said wright with you. He said, well, we
need the movies. He said, I'm gonna call you and
I went out to follow me down his role right here,
and he was like, we didn't already know what to do. Then,
in an interview with police, Caruth had gone through his
recent phone records and conspicuously avoided one number in particular.
He's naming him off right and left, and he gets
(04:17):
down to the one that turns out to be Van
Brett Watkins, and he just skips right over that, like
as quick as his finger could move. Police traced it
to the switch board of the Villager Lodge, a budget
motel out by Charlotte Douglas International Airport. That's where eight
these teams sat staking out the parking lot in November
(04:37):
Thanksgiving Day. We go out to the place where Watkins
is staying. Because this thing goes through a switchboard, there's
no way to determine who to you switch it too.
But while we're out there, we do see a pretty
good sized guy walking through the parking lot who turns
out to be Van Brett Watkins. After shooting Sharika, Watkins
(04:58):
says he hit out in his hometown of New York
for several days, but as doctors tried to save Sharika's life,
the hitman told me from prison that Carruth had grown angry.
This is don't call me every day. She's still alive,
comeback and called me any day, So fine, and what
(05:21):
he had later admit wasn't the smartest move of his
criminal career. Watkins check back into that same Villager lodge
where he had stayed before the shooting. That night, he
shared the room with his girlfriend and her infant son.
In the middle of the night, Watkins had ordered a pizza.
(05:43):
He had seen a police car and thought cops were
patrolling the motel, but also that they didn't know he
was in Room one eleven. The pizza may have giving
away watkins location. At the very least, it showed police
(06:04):
that somebody in room one eleven was wide awake. At
two am, Eighthy's team moved in. I just go knock
on my door and uh, you know, Watkins comes to
the door. He's pretty pretty good size guy, and I
think that his girlfriend, wife or somebody, and there was
a little baby and they're a kid. Here's athey again.
I just tell him and I say hey, hey to
bother you man. I said, something come up. We'd really
(06:26):
like to talk to your mind coming down to police
station with us. He said, hey, no problems. He just
gets in the car and rise back down to the
police stage withs. Just like that. You'd be surprised the
number of people that will do that. I don't remember
him even questioning why we're even there. That was watkins
last real moment as a freeman, and he knew it immediately.
(06:47):
I've this and I want to get away. Down at
the police station, the hitman wasn't his calm. He told
police that his name was William Edward Watkins, his dead
(07:08):
older brother, to try to hide his outstanding arrest warrants,
and in the interview room, Watkins pushed back literally on
eighties aggressive questions. We tried to, uh, like we do
on the interview always, people find something that's really gonna
bother him, and I think we think we're talking about
you know, the girl that's in the room with him,
and that's his baby. You know, anything that's gonna cause him.
(07:30):
You know, hey, look, you know wherever he got somebody
to seeing this is what you did. You don't tell
the truth. You know you're never gonna see these people again.
I mean, we just use enough to keep going because
at some point he jumps up like he's gonna kick
everybody's ass. Watkins does. Yeah, Now, are you a big
guy too? I'm about two thirty. I'm gonna weight level
big guy, so kicking nobody's ass in here. I'm afraid
(07:52):
of you. Watkins refused to cooperate at first, but police
still thought they had enough to arrest Karuth, so as
to tell at Price continued questioning the hip man. Eighth,
he drove to Kruth's house. He knocked on the front
door at dawn. He comes to the door completely naked.
He's got another girl in there. He hid an it
was such a clothes on. He's got some of the
(08:14):
girl in there, and we I think at that point
we just tell me he's under rest, with both Kennedy
and Kruth and custody. Watkins came clean. He could sense
this was gonna get turned on him and him along,
so he gave it up. And it really blew my
mind because I've been interviewed a lot of murder suspects
and it's rare to see one completely flipped like that.
(08:34):
This is Price. But once he started telling the story,
since we had worked it for so long, we knew
that it was true because his story fit everything that
we knew. And it wasn't that we were giving him
information and he was regurgitating it. He was actually telling
us the story from the movie Theater all the way
down to the shooting, and then what had happened after shooting.
(09:01):
Soon Carruth, Watkins, Kennedy and Kennedy's friend Stanley Abraham were
all under arrest. Had summer all with John Madden and
John Let's talk about the troubled Carolina Panthers. First news
of Karuth's arrest barreled through the Panther's locker room and
beyond man with disbelief, like what what what are you
(09:22):
talking to? Ray? You know this is Mike Mentor, Karuth's
former teammate on the Panthers. I think basically what people
think is okay, nothing's gonna happen now. It is no
way that can be right. With the help of his family,
local bail bondsman, and one thousand dollars of his own cash,
Karuth was able to post a three million dollar bail
(09:45):
on December six. It's spent eleven nights in jail. Of
the four men, Karuth was the only one who bonded out.
That bond had several stipulations. Karuth could not leave Mecklenburg County,
and he had to surrender her to police. If Sharika
or Chancellor died. She was existing, she was not living,
(10:06):
and so we made really I made the decision to
take her off of life support. At twelve pm on
December fourteenth, n Sharika passed away. Within hours, Caruth was gone.
Kruth never had a shortage of women who wanted to
(10:28):
be nearby. The entire time Sharika was pregnant with their son,
he dated at least one or two other women. He
also had numerous platonic female friends. One of those was
Wendy Cole, who owned a Charlotte hair salon at the time.
She was in her late twenties and she knew Caruth's
mother and his cousin too. Cole sometimes fed Caruth's dog
(10:48):
when he was out of town for away games. At
the time, Cole was planning a trip to California. Caruth,
who was from Sacramento, knew it. Soon after Sharika's death,
he begged Cold to take him with her. Ultimately she
agreed because he panicked. I mean, when here's what happened.
This is David Rudolph, who was Caruth's lead attorney during
(11:10):
his murder trial. Caruth authorized him to speak with me
for this project. Sharik Adams died and he got a
call from George Horn and you know, he was out
on bond at the time. And George said, you know,
you need to turn yourself in. And Ray said, what's
going to happen when I turned myself in? What you know,
will they continue the bond? And George said, no, they're not.
(11:34):
You're not going to continue the bond. You know, they're
probably gonna just lock you up. Uh. And Ray panicked,
pure and simple and Uh, I don't think he had
a plan particularly, I don't know that he was going
anywhere in particular. Uh. And you know, it's it's another example.
(11:54):
I guess of his flight reflects kicking in and the
does of interviews I've done over the past year that
characterization of Karuth has come up a lot. Rudolph told
me that Kruth now admits he was there when Sharika
was shot that had never been public knowledge before. Karuth
maintains that Sharika's murder was a retaliatory hit by Watkins
(12:17):
due to Karuth going back on his word to finance
a major drug deal. Karuth declined invitations to speak with
me on the record for this story, but through his attorney,
Kruth said he fled that night too, leaving the mother
of his unborn son to the mercy of a vengeful killer.
My reaction to Ray fleeing to Tennessee with yet another
(12:40):
girl friend was just another very big display of his cowardice.
This is Sandra Adams, Sharika's mother, because he had been
a coward through all of it, and I think that
maybe how he keeps his conscious clear because he didn't
actually pull of the trigger. He paid somebody to do it,
(13:02):
so when it was come time to take the punishment,
he ran out and didn't show up for that. So
I just think it spells out in very capital letters
his disposition. Around ten pm on the night Sharika died,
Carew threw on baggy black jeans, a T shirt, and
a gray and black leather jacket and climbed into the
(13:23):
trunk of that Toyota Cameron. It was messy back there
because the two were leaving in a hurry. There were
no suitcases, just clothes stuffed around the edges, along with
a few energy bars and sports strinths and a small
purse holding almost four thousand dollars in cash. She dies
in Uh, we'll go back to try to lock him up,
(13:43):
and of course he's uh, he's gone. This is Athey again.
You know, people say, well, why didn't you watch him?
I said, We've got a hundred thousand of things going
on in the city. We don't have resources sit and
watch one guy because of who he is. I mean,
he's not gonna vanish from the face of the earth
yet he had, at least for the moment. Cole drove
(14:05):
west on I forty through the night. Karruth occasionally talked
to her on his cell phone. By eight am, December,
Cole was exhausted. She checked into room one forty nine
of the Best Western in Wildersville. She needed to rest
and to think. Kruth stayed in the trunk. Cole cared
(14:26):
about Karuth and his family, but there were limits, and
aiding and abetting a fugitive wanted for murder across that line.
Inside the hotel room, Cole called Karuth's mother, the Audrey,
to tell her where they were. The Audrey Karuth was
relieved to hear from Cole. She had been speaking with
various news outlets that morning, telling them, quote, he's scared
(14:48):
and people have to know that he doesn't know what's
going to happen to him. She wasn't the only one
relieved to hear Karuth was okay. Detective Rice and I
had gone over and talked with the bell bondsman because
they stood to lose a lot of money. I can't
remember the exact amount of only there was a lot
of money for a bail bonds. This is price again.
So they were working every bit as hard as we
(15:10):
were on trying to locate Ray. And so the bail
bondsman was the ones actually contacted us and said there
at this hotel. They were able to give us the
location and at that point, you know, I think the
FBI were on scene within a couple of hours, which
is amazing because if we ever call them for something,
it's like they gotta have ops plans, and we're looking
at eight hours. But in fact, it was the Audrey
(15:35):
who tipped off the bail bondsman. She was worried her
son could be killed by police if the man hunt
stretched on. Kruth was now five hundred miles away. Bondsman
couldn't make that drive fast enough, and neither could Charlotte police.
I know, Detective Rice and I had tried to get
the department to helicopter US up to that location. UH
(15:56):
then instead elected to utilize the FBI and that re
en to go do the arrest. The FBI office in
Charlotte was notified someone they're called the bureaus Jackson, Tennessee
Field office and Mark Post. I went into work normal day,
so to speak, and then UH. At the time, I
was a supervisor with the five agents and the office,
(16:21):
so I was going in to do the paperwork and
the normal things that a supervisor goes every day, other
than catching the news that morning. Post had no idea
who the football player even was, but that didn't matter.
Now Karuth had become a fugitive, which Post knew all about,
and the FBI agent's routine day was about to get
(16:42):
a lot less ordinary. Technically, Karuth was on an unlawful
flight to avoid prosecution. Once he had crossed state lines,
the manhunt became a federal matter. I received a call
from the FBI office and they had developed information and
that he was in a motel in Wildersville, Tennessee, which
(17:07):
is about five miles from our satellite office. They gave
me a description of the car and that he was
traveling with lighty named Whendy Cole and I immediately got
the agents together and told him what the situation was.
One of the agents got a picture of Raker Ruth
off the internet and we were going to go out
(17:29):
to the hotel. And with that they were off. Five
FBI agents dressed in civilian clothes in three cars, no
sirens and no warning. No, this was very blow key.
We didn't want anybody to know that we were coming.
So we got close to the the exit and you
can see the motel, which is really the only motel
(17:51):
the best Western at the time. They're in Tennessee. Post
and I made that same drive together arriving at what's
now in America's best value in in suites. Here is
our path of travel, going eastbound in a procession, three vehicles,
new ownership aside. It's the exact same building off to
your right as you drive east on I forty, clearly
(18:14):
visible atop a little hill. You can actually catch a
glimpse of Room one as you take the exit ramp nearby.
If you know where to look and what you're looking at,
and you break from the trees, you get a clear
view of the hotel rooms. And this is where we
first spotted the camera backed in to room. Room is
(18:39):
where the man hunt came to an end. That's them.
They backed in case local law enforcement came in and
saw the license. The adrenaline kicked in. I thought, oh
my god, he is here. Going directly to the room
seemed risky. From what he had been told. Coal was
a relatively innocent bystander with a way to know if
(19:00):
Kruth was armed. Post wanted to control the situation and
remove Coal from harm's away. I went to the office
with another agent to the best questern. The other cars
went up onto the back side, overlooking the vehicle, keeping
an eye on it. So we went into the hotel
(19:20):
spoke to the manager. There was a lady there at
the desk and we asked about the camera. Told him
that we had a warrant for the rest of an
individual we thought was staying with her. So I asked
her to call the room and tell Ms Cole there's
(19:43):
a mechanical issue and have her come and give her
a key to change works. She made the call. Ruth's
accomplice walked about fifty yards across the parking lot to
pick up the new key, but in the office she
found the FBI, and we immediately identified ourselves and told
her that we were looking for Ray Kruth. And I
(20:04):
asked her if he was in the room, and she
said no. I said, can we searched the room? She
said yes, So we searched the room and there was
no Gradkreuth. Cole didn't exactly deny that Kruth was there.
She didn't try to send the FBI away, but she
didn't really answer their questions either. I asked her if
(20:25):
Ray Kruth was with her, She said no. I said,
where's he at? Said, well, I'm not sure, but he's
around here. Different answers every time, and very big. She
told me that she was on her way to uh,
California for a cosmetic school. She was just very polite
and very nice, but very young and naive and immature.
(20:48):
I thought, sooner or later, she's gonna tell me. POST
thought Karuth might have walked someplace to buy food. He
had no car and no obvious way to leave, so
the FBI decided they just wait there in room one fifty,
right next door. I told her that we were not leaving,
and then we're checking into the room next to her.
She didn't say anything after about twenty minutes. I went
(21:11):
down and I sat down on the side of the
bed and I said, do you know where he is?
Don't you? And she looked at the keys and I
didn't pick up on it the first time. I said,
where is he when? And she looked at the keys again.
He's in the trunk, an't me? And she looked at
me and she says, I don't want you to hurt him.
(21:31):
I said, we're not going to hurt him. I said,
I won't tell him that you told me because I'm
the one that figured it out. She said, okay. The
camera was parked right here, backed in to the edge
of this walk away and room is where Wendy Cole
(21:55):
had checked into at the one story motel. Each rooms
door opens direct lee into the parking lot, so when
the FBI left room, Karuth was physically no more than
two steps away, curled up in the fetal position inside
the trunk of her camera. It was about six pm
that December night. When agents approached the car. It was
(22:18):
dark except for the hotel's lights, and cold enough to
be uncomfortable. Karuth had been stuffed in the trunk for
almost twenty one hour straight. The first thing that came
to my mind and I was most concerned about, was
if he does have a weapon, he's going to commit
suicide because of the circumstances. Are riding in a trunk,
(22:40):
desperate to get out, He's gonna be placed under he arrest,
and his whole career in life has taken a turn
for the worst. And I told her this is what
we're gonna do. I want you to tell Ray that
we know that he's in there and we're not gonna
hurt him. She did that, then stepped aside. One agent
stood on either side of the camera with guns drawn,
(23:03):
ready to shoot Kruth if necessary. A third agent climbed
down under the trunk, reaching up with the key to
undo the luck. I said, Ray, I'm with the FBI
and I have agents surrounded the car. I want you
to cooperate with me and do what I say. I said,
do you have any weapons now? I said, as soon
(23:24):
as we popped the trunk just enough, the first thing
I want to see is those hands come up. Do
you understand me? Yes, sir, Post gave a queue to
the agent on the ground. The agent popped it up
just enough and his hands came right out. I mean
I was surprised how fast. To a certain degree, He's
laying on his side in a field position. Source good
(23:47):
because of all the baggage. There was a much room
for him in there at all. So we helped him up,
handcuffed him and his pants were down to his knees,
and pulled his pants up, got him out of the trunk.
We brought everything out that was in the trunk. There
was two sport drink bolls to Gatorade type. One was
(24:11):
four urine, one was half full. There was a number
of power bars and candy bar rappers. Murray told us
that he had dollars cash in there, which we found
in a small ladies handbag type. Who put one cole
in a car and we drove her car, telling him
(24:31):
that we were going to transport him to our office.
Caruth had trouble standing, but as the athlete tried to
get the blood flowing to his legs again, Post had
another thought. What if Kruth runs. Karuth was already a
metaphorical runner, often choosing flight over fight, but he was
(24:55):
also a literal runner with speed that helped get him
to the NFL. If Karuth rand would middle aged FBI
agents chase a year old with a four three forty
yard dash. If adrenaline took over, would one of them
shoot him? Could the Audrey Caruth have had a point
For a while, I thought this guy's tight end or
a wide receiver. He could run, and so that was
(25:18):
a little concern that I had prior to getting him
in the vehicle, that he'd take off. Thankfully for everyone,
after fleeing the scene of Sharika's shooting, he never stopped
his car. He was scared and he took off misleading
police is going through these phone numbers and he gets
down to the one that turns out to be band
(25:38):
Brett Watkins, and he just skips right over that panicking again.
After Sharika's death, My reaction to ray fleeing was just
another big display of his cowardice. Been spending his last
day as a free man in the darkness and the cold,
undressed and surrounded by bottles of his own urine, in
a space smaller than a prison self. It's the example
(26:00):
I guess of his flight reflects kicking in Kruth was
done running. He sure was very subdued and very meek
and mild, no cocky nous whatsoever. He was quiet, yes, sir, no, sir.
Agents drove Caruth to the FBI office in Jackson. There,
(26:20):
they questioned him, They let him call his mother and
tell her he was okay. When Caruth asked for a Bible,
they tracked one down. When he said he was hungry,
posts sent someone out for a chicken sandwich and fries.
I mean those agents who were very focused and took
the initiative rather than just accepting the fact that he's
(26:41):
not in the car. Who's not in the room, So
I guess he's not here, Let's go home. I think
this is the first time I've ever found anybody in
the trunk. Caruth spent that night in jail in Tennessee
after doing a purp walk in front of the media.
All ended here for late in the parking lot of it.
(27:03):
That's Western Motel in Wildersville, Tennessee. Brand you do it.
Soon he was extradited and U. S. Marshalls drove him
five miles back to Charlotte, where he became a national punchline. Yeah.
I had to be packing shot, going I'm no good
way on this mothering in this trunk. That little mother
is in the trunk. Here's comedian Steve Harvey again, I
(27:24):
don't need to get mad and shot nobody. The NFL
suspended Kruth indefinitely. Carolina Panther's owner Jerry Richardson released a
statement of his own, cutting all ties with the former
number one draft pick. Caruth had still been on the
Panthers roster until he was found in Tennessee. Richardson's statement
(27:45):
said quote, our decision was based on Ray's actions over
the last forty eight hours, and it is not a
statement about the case. Initially, you don't want to believe
it something that horrific, in that calculated You're just thinking,
I can't my teammate could not have done that, and
gon to be loyal to him. This is Steve Berlin,
Caruth's primary quarterback on the Panthers. But as the facts
(28:05):
started coming out, in reality hit all of us that
this is not looking good. Ray and I remember we
were talking about a locker whom we could have done
and what we you know, were there any signs that
any of this stuff was going through his mind? And
he was so to himself that it was really hard
to get a read on what he was thinking. Caruth's
only public comment on the man hunt came back in
two thousand one. He told C N N S I
(28:27):
quote people who have had situations being scared and being
in the position where you really feel like you don't
have any hope would understand. Well, man, maybe he really
did need to clear his head. Cole was charged with
harboring a fugitive, but the charge was dropped six months later.
Posts still can't drive past Parker's Crossroads without glancing up
(28:48):
at the motel. I travel life forward, he frequently right there.
I see that facing the interstate. It just clicks. I'll
never forget seeing that camera and saying he's back in,
he's hiding the license plate. That's go ahead and be
seated for a second. Three days after Kruth was found
(29:10):
in a trunk, Sharika was buried on a clear morning
in South Charlotte. Waves of people filled the sanctuary of
the Victory Christian Center Mega Church. I was asked to speak,
but I knew at that I was I didn't have
the ability to. This is Valerie Brooks, one of Sharika's
closest friends. There were over a thousand people at our funeral.
(29:30):
It was huge. Sharika made a huge impact. We talked
about how important It is for us to walk in love.
Isn't that right? Even even towards our enemies? And his eulogy,
Pastor Robin Gould acknowledged how she died. We need a
higher value of life, he said, if you can blow
away a pregnant woman. By then, Sharika's killing had attracted
(29:54):
such widespread attention there was no way to avoid the
elephant in the room, or the dozens of them. I
remember resenting all the media. I remember that they were everywhere.
This is Sonia Melton, another of Sharika's close friends. They
were especially right at the entrance of the church, really
(30:14):
heavily right there. So it was packed. It was emotional.
A smaller service was held later that day at the
nearby Sunset Memory Gardens. There, Sharika's silver casket was lowered
into the ground. Mourners released twenty four purple balloons. Each
one carried a photograph of her. Sandra and Sharika's father,
(30:38):
Jeff Mooney, released a joint statement to the media saying, quote,
we cannot help but feel glad that in the midst
of our unspeakable grief, God has given us Chancellor as
a beacon of hope. We look forward to providing him
with the love, affection, guidance, and nurturing that will help
him grow into a man of which his mother will
(30:59):
be out. On December thirty one, thirteen days after his
mother's funeral, Chancellor Lee was released from the hospital into
Sandra's care. Dosha Hickey, the doctor who had cared for
him in the hospital, had her suspicions proven correct. Chancellor
Lee was soon diagnosed with cerebral palsy, leaving him with
(31:21):
significant mobility and speech issues. He also had major intellectual
disabilities due to the irreversible brain damage he suffered the
night of his birth. Well what you want, you don't
We don't really have a weight, but he was over
five pounds when he went home. Hickey was there to
see him off and to make sure that happened away
from the TV cameras. I still remember that day, and
(31:42):
we snuck him out the back door because we didn't
tell the media, and they didn't tell him till he
was already home and they said he's been released today.
We went out for the emergency room. Less than two
weeks after burying her daughter, Sandra, at forty two years old,
had become the price merry caretaker for her grandson as
(32:03):
she braced for life once more as a single guardian.
A separate struggle was taking shape, led by someone else
who had been there at Sharika's funeral, veteran Charlotte attorney,
Gentry Cardell. I just wanted to get to know the
person about whom evidence in the case I felt gone.
(32:23):
Caruth had become the first active NFL player ever to
be charged with murder, and Cardell was the lead prosecutor
for Kruth's upcoming trial. Cardell had already sent eight men
to death row. He wanted Kruth to be number nine.
I'm Scott Fowler and this podcast is produced by Jeff
(32:44):
Signer and Rachel Wise and Davin Coburn at McClatchy Studios.
Find lots more about this case at Charlotte Observer dot
com slash Caruth and for just thirty dollars subscribed now
to a full year of The Observer's award winning sports
coverage at Charlotte Observer dot com slash sports Pass. In
chapter five, Caruth goes on trial. In my mind, there
(33:11):
was no doubt that this was the man that pulled
the trigger. Now the jury is just sort of saying, Okay,
do I believe Ray carew and the criminals turn on themselves.
That's the bitch I was talking about. Like Carue, the
judge found our biggest deputy he could find to sit
between him and Watkins. I'm two hundred and eighty six pounds.
I would rip you like a rag doll.
A listener. Note this story contains adult language and some
graphic descriptions of violence. Previously on Ruth, the phone rang
and they were like, your daughter is at the hospital.
She's been shot. It is miraculous that he survived because
(00:21):
Shrika was in very bad shape when she came in. Finally,
Ray comes in with another woman. This was very new
at the time cellphone triangulation, and we could put Ray's
cell phone where she was shot. Her bought pressure was down,
she was hypotensive. When that happens, the baby doesn't get
oxygen and that causes brain damage. She was existing, she
(00:45):
was not living, So I didn't have to think long
on making that decision. Uh, And I knew, and I
know she knew that her son was in good hands. Wildersville, Tennessee,
(01:08):
is due west of Charlotte on Interstate forty, some eight
hours and five miles by car. To get there, you
wine past vague locations like buck Snort and Sugar Tree,
and drive past the cornfields and the cracker barrels. Halfway
between Nashville and Memphis. It's the sort of place you
might stop for a few hours of rest on a
cross country drive every so often. Civil War reenactors gathered
(01:32):
nearby to commemorate the Battle of Parker's Crossroads, when Confederate
General Nathan Bedford Forest escaped captured by Union soldiers. But
in n this stretch of I forty had another brush
with history in an unassuming roadside motel that was at
the time a best Western. This is where on December
(01:57):
Carolina panther Ray Caruth was found in the feet total
position in the trunk of a gray Toyota camera, his
pants around his knees. Ray Caru, who helped plan the
got escape. Was this not the admitted to ever? Back
then the original kings of comedy couldn't resist and Steve
(02:19):
Harvey had a Charlotte audience rolling with laughter. When you
running from the law, you want to get a passport,
Ray Reay to your das nash fel like they ain't
gonna spatch your black less and nash Feld, the man
doing the spotting, turned out to be FBI agent Mark Post.
He was eating oatmeal that Wednesday morning when a famous
(02:41):
fugitive practically showed up on his doorstep. I saw a
segment on Good Morning America. Ray Kruth fled the state,
and to myself, I said, I wonder where he's had
it from the Charlotte Observer in McClatchy Studios. This is Caruth.
I'm Scott Fowler, and this is chapter four the man Hunt.
(03:14):
To understand how Caruth arrived in Tennessee, we need to
take a step back. In early December, family and friends
have been keeping vigil at Sharika Adams's bedside. Sergeant Tom
Athey and his team of homicide detectives have been racing
to find out who shot her. Remember there was a
money and tell us what happened. I would you to
(03:36):
be honest with us. Michael Kennedy, the driver in the
car that carried out the drive by shooting, had already
told authorities his version of the story. He had also
painted a picture of Van Brett Watkins, whom Kennedy knew
only as William the alias Watkins had used, Yeah, he's
my man. Arrived at you. He was talking about will
(03:56):
and he said wright with you. He said, well, we
need the movies. He said, I'm gonna call you and
I went out to follow me down his role right here,
and he was like, we didn't already know what to do. Then,
in an interview with police, Caruth had gone through his
recent phone records and conspicuously avoided one number in particular.
He's naming him off right and left, and he gets
(04:17):
down to the one that turns out to be Van
Brett Watkins, and he just skips right over that, like
as quick as his finger could move. Police traced it
to the switch board of the Villager Lodge, a budget
motel out by Charlotte Douglas International Airport. That's where eight
these teams sat staking out the parking lot in November
(04:37):
Thanksgiving Day. We go out to the place where Watkins
is staying. Because this thing goes through a switchboard, there's
no way to determine who to you switch it too.
But while we're out there, we do see a pretty
good sized guy walking through the parking lot who turns
out to be Van Brett Watkins. After shooting Sharika, Watkins
(04:58):
says he hit out in his hometown of New York
for several days, but as doctors tried to save Sharika's life,
the hitman told me from prison that Carruth had grown angry.
This is don't call me every day. She's still alive,
comeback and called me any day, So fine, and what
(05:21):
he had later admit wasn't the smartest move of his
criminal career. Watkins check back into that same Villager lodge
where he had stayed before the shooting. That night, he
shared the room with his girlfriend and her infant son.
In the middle of the night, Watkins had ordered a pizza.
(05:43):
He had seen a police car and thought cops were
patrolling the motel, but also that they didn't know he
was in Room one eleven. The pizza may have giving
away watkins location. At the very least, it showed police
(06:04):
that somebody in room one eleven was wide awake. At
two am, Eighthy's team moved in. I just go knock
on my door and uh, you know, Watkins comes to
the door. He's pretty pretty good size guy, and I
think that his girlfriend, wife or somebody, and there was
a little baby and they're a kid. Here's athey again.
I just tell him and I say hey, hey to
bother you man. I said, something come up. We'd really
(06:26):
like to talk to your mind coming down to police
station with us. He said, hey, no problems. He just
gets in the car and rise back down to the
police stage withs. Just like that. You'd be surprised the
number of people that will do that. I don't remember
him even questioning why we're even there. That was watkins
last real moment as a freeman, and he knew it immediately.
(06:47):
I've this and I want to get away. Down at
the police station, the hitman wasn't his calm. He told
police that his name was William Edward Watkins, his dead
(07:08):
older brother, to try to hide his outstanding arrest warrants,
and in the interview room, Watkins pushed back literally on
eighties aggressive questions. We tried to, uh, like we do
on the interview always, people find something that's really gonna
bother him, and I think we think we're talking about
you know, the girl that's in the room with him,
and that's his baby. You know, anything that's gonna cause him.
(07:30):
You know, hey, look, you know wherever he got somebody
to seeing this is what you did. You don't tell
the truth. You know you're never gonna see these people again.
I mean, we just use enough to keep going because
at some point he jumps up like he's gonna kick
everybody's ass. Watkins does. Yeah, Now, are you a big
guy too? I'm about two thirty. I'm gonna weight level
big guy, so kicking nobody's ass in here. I'm afraid
(07:52):
of you. Watkins refused to cooperate at first, but police
still thought they had enough to arrest Karuth, so as
to tell at Price continued questioning the hip man. Eighth,
he drove to Kruth's house. He knocked on the front
door at dawn. He comes to the door completely naked.
He's got another girl in there. He hid an it
was such a clothes on. He's got some of the
(08:14):
girl in there, and we I think at that point
we just tell me he's under rest, with both Kennedy
and Kruth and custody. Watkins came clean. He could sense
this was gonna get turned on him and him along,
so he gave it up. And it really blew my
mind because I've been interviewed a lot of murder suspects
and it's rare to see one completely flipped like that.
(08:34):
This is Price. But once he started telling the story,
since we had worked it for so long, we knew
that it was true because his story fit everything that
we knew. And it wasn't that we were giving him
information and he was regurgitating it. He was actually telling
us the story from the movie Theater all the way
down to the shooting, and then what had happened after shooting.
(09:01):
Soon Carruth, Watkins, Kennedy and Kennedy's friend Stanley Abraham were
all under arrest. Had summer all with John Madden and
John Let's talk about the troubled Carolina Panthers. First news
of Karuth's arrest barreled through the Panther's locker room and
beyond man with disbelief, like what what what are you
(09:22):
talking to? Ray? You know this is Mike Mentor, Karuth's
former teammate on the Panthers. I think basically what people
think is okay, nothing's gonna happen now. It is no
way that can be right. With the help of his family,
local bail bondsman, and one thousand dollars of his own cash,
Karuth was able to post a three million dollar bail
(09:45):
on December six. It's spent eleven nights in jail. Of
the four men, Karuth was the only one who bonded out.
That bond had several stipulations. Karuth could not leave Mecklenburg County,
and he had to surrender her to police. If Sharika
or Chancellor died. She was existing, she was not living,
(10:06):
and so we made really I made the decision to
take her off of life support. At twelve pm on
December fourteenth, n Sharika passed away. Within hours, Caruth was gone.
Kruth never had a shortage of women who wanted to
(10:28):
be nearby. The entire time Sharika was pregnant with their son,
he dated at least one or two other women. He
also had numerous platonic female friends. One of those was
Wendy Cole, who owned a Charlotte hair salon at the time.
She was in her late twenties and she knew Caruth's
mother and his cousin too. Cole sometimes fed Caruth's dog
(10:48):
when he was out of town for away games. At
the time, Cole was planning a trip to California. Caruth,
who was from Sacramento, knew it. Soon after Sharika's death,
he begged Cold to take him with her. Ultimately she
agreed because he panicked. I mean, when here's what happened.
This is David Rudolph, who was Caruth's lead attorney during
(11:10):
his murder trial. Caruth authorized him to speak with me
for this project. Sharik Adams died and he got a
call from George Horn and you know, he was out
on bond at the time. And George said, you know,
you need to turn yourself in. And Ray said, what's
going to happen when I turned myself in? What you know,
will they continue the bond? And George said, no, they're not.
(11:34):
You're not going to continue the bond. You know, they're
probably gonna just lock you up. Uh. And Ray panicked,
pure and simple and Uh, I don't think he had
a plan particularly, I don't know that he was going
anywhere in particular. Uh. And you know, it's it's another example.
(11:54):
I guess of his flight reflects kicking in and the
does of interviews I've done over the past year that
characterization of Karuth has come up a lot. Rudolph told
me that Kruth now admits he was there when Sharika
was shot that had never been public knowledge before. Karuth
maintains that Sharika's murder was a retaliatory hit by Watkins
(12:17):
due to Karuth going back on his word to finance
a major drug deal. Karuth declined invitations to speak with
me on the record for this story, but through his attorney,
Kruth said he fled that night too, leaving the mother
of his unborn son to the mercy of a vengeful killer.
My reaction to Ray fleeing to Tennessee with yet another
(12:40):
girl friend was just another very big display of his cowardice.
This is Sandra Adams, Sharika's mother, because he had been
a coward through all of it, and I think that
maybe how he keeps his conscious clear because he didn't
actually pull of the trigger. He paid somebody to do it,
(13:02):
so when it was come time to take the punishment,
he ran out and didn't show up for that. So
I just think it spells out in very capital letters
his disposition. Around ten pm on the night Sharika died,
Carew threw on baggy black jeans, a T shirt, and
a gray and black leather jacket and climbed into the
(13:23):
trunk of that Toyota Cameron. It was messy back there
because the two were leaving in a hurry. There were
no suitcases, just clothes stuffed around the edges, along with
a few energy bars and sports strinths and a small
purse holding almost four thousand dollars in cash. She dies
in Uh, we'll go back to try to lock him up,
(13:43):
and of course he's uh, he's gone. This is Athey again.
You know, people say, well, why didn't you watch him?
I said, We've got a hundred thousand of things going
on in the city. We don't have resources sit and
watch one guy because of who he is. I mean,
he's not gonna vanish from the face of the earth
yet he had, at least for the moment. Cole drove
(14:05):
west on I forty through the night. Karruth occasionally talked
to her on his cell phone. By eight am, December,
Cole was exhausted. She checked into room one forty nine
of the Best Western in Wildersville. She needed to rest
and to think. Kruth stayed in the trunk. Cole cared
(14:26):
about Karuth and his family, but there were limits, and
aiding and abetting a fugitive wanted for murder across that line.
Inside the hotel room, Cole called Karuth's mother, the Audrey,
to tell her where they were. The Audrey Karuth was
relieved to hear from Cole. She had been speaking with
various news outlets that morning, telling them, quote, he's scared
(14:48):
and people have to know that he doesn't know what's
going to happen to him. She wasn't the only one
relieved to hear Karuth was okay. Detective Rice and I
had gone over and talked with the bell bondsman because
they stood to lose a lot of money. I can't
remember the exact amount of only there was a lot
of money for a bail bonds. This is price again.
So they were working every bit as hard as we
(15:10):
were on trying to locate Ray. And so the bail
bondsman was the ones actually contacted us and said there
at this hotel. They were able to give us the
location and at that point, you know, I think the
FBI were on scene within a couple of hours, which
is amazing because if we ever call them for something,
it's like they gotta have ops plans, and we're looking
at eight hours. But in fact, it was the Audrey
(15:35):
who tipped off the bail bondsman. She was worried her
son could be killed by police if the man hunt
stretched on. Kruth was now five hundred miles away. Bondsman
couldn't make that drive fast enough, and neither could Charlotte police.
I know, Detective Rice and I had tried to get
the department to helicopter US up to that location. UH
(15:56):
then instead elected to utilize the FBI and that re
en to go do the arrest. The FBI office in
Charlotte was notified someone they're called the bureaus Jackson, Tennessee
Field office and Mark Post. I went into work normal day,
so to speak, and then UH. At the time, I
was a supervisor with the five agents and the office,
(16:21):
so I was going in to do the paperwork and
the normal things that a supervisor goes every day, other
than catching the news that morning. Post had no idea
who the football player even was, but that didn't matter.
Now Karuth had become a fugitive, which Post knew all about,
and the FBI agent's routine day was about to get
(16:42):
a lot less ordinary. Technically, Karuth was on an unlawful
flight to avoid prosecution. Once he had crossed state lines,
the manhunt became a federal matter. I received a call
from the FBI office and they had developed information and
that he was in a motel in Wildersville, Tennessee, which
(17:07):
is about five miles from our satellite office. They gave
me a description of the car and that he was
traveling with lighty named Whendy Cole and I immediately got
the agents together and told him what the situation was.
One of the agents got a picture of Raker Ruth
off the internet and we were going to go out
(17:29):
to the hotel. And with that they were off. Five
FBI agents dressed in civilian clothes in three cars, no
sirens and no warning. No, this was very blow key.
We didn't want anybody to know that we were coming.
So we got close to the the exit and you
can see the motel, which is really the only motel
(17:51):
the best Western at the time. They're in Tennessee. Post
and I made that same drive together arriving at what's
now in America's best value in in suites. Here is
our path of travel, going eastbound in a procession, three vehicles,
new ownership aside. It's the exact same building off to
your right as you drive east on I forty, clearly
(18:14):
visible atop a little hill. You can actually catch a
glimpse of Room one as you take the exit ramp nearby.
If you know where to look and what you're looking at,
and you break from the trees, you get a clear
view of the hotel rooms. And this is where we
first spotted the camera backed in to room. Room is
(18:39):
where the man hunt came to an end. That's them.
They backed in case local law enforcement came in and
saw the license. The adrenaline kicked in. I thought, oh
my god, he is here. Going directly to the room
seemed risky. From what he had been told. Coal was
a relatively innocent bystander with a way to know if
(19:00):
Kruth was armed. Post wanted to control the situation and
remove Coal from harm's away. I went to the office
with another agent to the best questern. The other cars
went up onto the back side, overlooking the vehicle, keeping
an eye on it. So we went into the hotel
(19:20):
spoke to the manager. There was a lady there at
the desk and we asked about the camera. Told him
that we had a warrant for the rest of an
individual we thought was staying with her. So I asked
her to call the room and tell Ms Cole there's
(19:43):
a mechanical issue and have her come and give her
a key to change works. She made the call. Ruth's
accomplice walked about fifty yards across the parking lot to
pick up the new key, but in the office she
found the FBI, and we immediately identified ourselves and told
her that we were looking for Ray Kruth. And I
(20:04):
asked her if he was in the room, and she
said no. I said, can we searched the room? She
said yes, So we searched the room and there was
no Gradkreuth. Cole didn't exactly deny that Kruth was there.
She didn't try to send the FBI away, but she
didn't really answer their questions either. I asked her if
(20:25):
Ray Kruth was with her, She said no. I said,
where's he at? Said, well, I'm not sure, but he's
around here. Different answers every time, and very big. She
told me that she was on her way to uh,
California for a cosmetic school. She was just very polite
and very nice, but very young and naive and immature.
(20:48):
I thought, sooner or later, she's gonna tell me. POST
thought Karuth might have walked someplace to buy food. He
had no car and no obvious way to leave, so
the FBI decided they just wait there in room one fifty,
right next door. I told her that we were not leaving,
and then we're checking into the room next to her.
She didn't say anything after about twenty minutes. I went
(21:11):
down and I sat down on the side of the
bed and I said, do you know where he is?
Don't you? And she looked at the keys and I
didn't pick up on it the first time. I said,
where is he when? And she looked at the keys again.
He's in the trunk, an't me? And she looked at
me and she says, I don't want you to hurt him.
(21:31):
I said, we're not going to hurt him. I said,
I won't tell him that you told me because I'm
the one that figured it out. She said, okay. The
camera was parked right here, backed in to the edge
of this walk away and room is where Wendy Cole
(21:55):
had checked into at the one story motel. Each rooms
door opens direct lee into the parking lot, so when
the FBI left room, Karuth was physically no more than
two steps away, curled up in the fetal position inside
the trunk of her camera. It was about six pm
that December night. When agents approached the car. It was
(22:18):
dark except for the hotel's lights, and cold enough to
be uncomfortable. Karuth had been stuffed in the trunk for
almost twenty one hour straight. The first thing that came
to my mind and I was most concerned about, was
if he does have a weapon, he's going to commit
suicide because of the circumstances. Are riding in a trunk,
(22:40):
desperate to get out, He's gonna be placed under he arrest,
and his whole career in life has taken a turn
for the worst. And I told her this is what
we're gonna do. I want you to tell Ray that
we know that he's in there and we're not gonna
hurt him. She did that, then stepped aside. One agent
stood on either side of the camera with guns drawn,
(23:03):
ready to shoot Kruth if necessary. A third agent climbed
down under the trunk, reaching up with the key to
undo the luck. I said, Ray, I'm with the FBI
and I have agents surrounded the car. I want you
to cooperate with me and do what I say. I said,
do you have any weapons now? I said, as soon
(23:24):
as we popped the trunk just enough, the first thing
I want to see is those hands come up. Do
you understand me? Yes, sir, Post gave a queue to
the agent on the ground. The agent popped it up
just enough and his hands came right out. I mean
I was surprised how fast. To a certain degree, He's
laying on his side in a field position. Source good
(23:47):
because of all the baggage. There was a much room
for him in there at all. So we helped him up,
handcuffed him and his pants were down to his knees,
and pulled his pants up, got him out of the trunk.
We brought everything out that was in the trunk. There
was two sport drink bolls to Gatorade type. One was
(24:11):
four urine, one was half full. There was a number
of power bars and candy bar rappers. Murray told us
that he had dollars cash in there, which we found
in a small ladies handbag type. Who put one cole
in a car and we drove her car, telling him
(24:31):
that we were going to transport him to our office.
Caruth had trouble standing, but as the athlete tried to
get the blood flowing to his legs again, Post had
another thought. What if Kruth runs. Karuth was already a
metaphorical runner, often choosing flight over fight, but he was
(24:55):
also a literal runner with speed that helped get him
to the NFL. If Karuth rand would middle aged FBI
agents chase a year old with a four three forty
yard dash. If adrenaline took over, would one of them
shoot him? Could the Audrey Caruth have had a point
For a while, I thought this guy's tight end or
a wide receiver. He could run, and so that was
(25:18):
a little concern that I had prior to getting him
in the vehicle, that he'd take off. Thankfully for everyone,
after fleeing the scene of Sharika's shooting, he never stopped
his car. He was scared and he took off misleading
police is going through these phone numbers and he gets
down to the one that turns out to be band
(25:38):
Brett Watkins, and he just skips right over that panicking again.
After Sharika's death, My reaction to ray fleeing was just
another big display of his cowardice. Been spending his last
day as a free man in the darkness and the cold,
undressed and surrounded by bottles of his own urine, in
a space smaller than a prison self. It's the example
(26:00):
I guess of his flight reflects kicking in Kruth was
done running. He sure was very subdued and very meek
and mild, no cocky nous whatsoever. He was quiet, yes, sir, no, sir.
Agents drove Caruth to the FBI office in Jackson. There,
(26:20):
they questioned him, They let him call his mother and
tell her he was okay. When Caruth asked for a Bible,
they tracked one down. When he said he was hungry,
posts sent someone out for a chicken sandwich and fries.
I mean those agents who were very focused and took
the initiative rather than just accepting the fact that he's
(26:41):
not in the car. Who's not in the room, So
I guess he's not here, Let's go home. I think
this is the first time I've ever found anybody in
the trunk. Caruth spent that night in jail in Tennessee
after doing a purp walk in front of the media.
All ended here for late in the parking lot of it.
(27:03):
That's Western Motel in Wildersville, Tennessee. Brand you do it.
Soon he was extradited and U. S. Marshalls drove him
five miles back to Charlotte, where he became a national punchline. Yeah.
I had to be packing shot, going I'm no good
way on this mothering in this trunk. That little mother
is in the trunk. Here's comedian Steve Harvey again, I
(27:24):
don't need to get mad and shot nobody. The NFL
suspended Kruth indefinitely. Carolina Panther's owner Jerry Richardson released a
statement of his own, cutting all ties with the former
number one draft pick. Caruth had still been on the
Panthers roster until he was found in Tennessee. Richardson's statement
(27:45):
said quote, our decision was based on Ray's actions over
the last forty eight hours, and it is not a
statement about the case. Initially, you don't want to believe
it something that horrific, in that calculated You're just thinking,
I can't my teammate could not have done that, and
gon to be loyal to him. This is Steve Berlin,
Caruth's primary quarterback on the Panthers. But as the facts
(28:05):
started coming out, in reality hit all of us that
this is not looking good. Ray and I remember we
were talking about a locker whom we could have done
and what we you know, were there any signs that
any of this stuff was going through his mind? And
he was so to himself that it was really hard
to get a read on what he was thinking. Caruth's
only public comment on the man hunt came back in
two thousand one. He told C N N S I
(28:27):
quote people who have had situations being scared and being
in the position where you really feel like you don't
have any hope would understand. Well, man, maybe he really
did need to clear his head. Cole was charged with
harboring a fugitive, but the charge was dropped six months later.
Posts still can't drive past Parker's Crossroads without glancing up
(28:48):
at the motel. I travel life forward, he frequently right there.
I see that facing the interstate. It just clicks. I'll
never forget seeing that camera and saying he's back in,
he's hiding the license plate. That's go ahead and be
seated for a second. Three days after Kruth was found
(29:10):
in a trunk, Sharika was buried on a clear morning
in South Charlotte. Waves of people filled the sanctuary of
the Victory Christian Center Mega Church. I was asked to speak,
but I knew at that I was I didn't have
the ability to. This is Valerie Brooks, one of Sharika's
closest friends. There were over a thousand people at our funeral.
(29:30):
It was huge. Sharika made a huge impact. We talked
about how important It is for us to walk in love.
Isn't that right? Even even towards our enemies? And his eulogy,
Pastor Robin Gould acknowledged how she died. We need a
higher value of life, he said, if you can blow
away a pregnant woman. By then, Sharika's killing had attracted
(29:54):
such widespread attention there was no way to avoid the
elephant in the room, or the dozens of them. I
remember resenting all the media. I remember that they were everywhere.
This is Sonia Melton, another of Sharika's close friends. They
were especially right at the entrance of the church, really
(30:14):
heavily right there. So it was packed. It was emotional.
A smaller service was held later that day at the
nearby Sunset Memory Gardens. There, Sharika's silver casket was lowered
into the ground. Mourners released twenty four purple balloons. Each
one carried a photograph of her. Sandra and Sharika's father,
(30:38):
Jeff Mooney, released a joint statement to the media saying, quote,
we cannot help but feel glad that in the midst
of our unspeakable grief, God has given us Chancellor as
a beacon of hope. We look forward to providing him
with the love, affection, guidance, and nurturing that will help
him grow into a man of which his mother will
(30:59):
be out. On December thirty one, thirteen days after his
mother's funeral, Chancellor Lee was released from the hospital into
Sandra's care. Dosha Hickey, the doctor who had cared for
him in the hospital, had her suspicions proven correct. Chancellor
Lee was soon diagnosed with cerebral palsy, leaving him with
(31:21):
significant mobility and speech issues. He also had major intellectual
disabilities due to the irreversible brain damage he suffered the
night of his birth. Well what you want, you don't
We don't really have a weight, but he was over
five pounds when he went home. Hickey was there to
see him off and to make sure that happened away
from the TV cameras. I still remember that day, and
(31:42):
we snuck him out the back door because we didn't
tell the media, and they didn't tell him till he
was already home and they said he's been released today.
We went out for the emergency room. Less than two
weeks after burying her daughter, Sandra, at forty two years old,
had become the price merry caretaker for her grandson as
(32:03):
she braced for life once more as a single guardian.
A separate struggle was taking shape, led by someone else
who had been there at Sharika's funeral, veteran Charlotte attorney,
Gentry Cardell. I just wanted to get to know the
person about whom evidence in the case I felt gone.
(32:23):
Caruth had become the first active NFL player ever to
be charged with murder, and Cardell was the lead prosecutor
for Kruth's upcoming trial. Cardell had already sent eight men
to death row. He wanted Kruth to be number nine.
I'm Scott Fowler and this podcast is produced by Jeff
(32:44):
Signer and Rachel Wise and Davin Coburn at McClatchy Studios.
Find lots more about this case at Charlotte Observer dot
com slash Caruth and for just thirty dollars subscribed now
to a full year of The Observer's award winning sports
coverage at Charlotte Observer dot com slash sports Pass. In
chapter five, Caruth goes on trial. In my mind, there
(33:11):
was no doubt that this was the man that pulled
the trigger. Now the jury is just sort of saying, Okay,
do I believe Ray carew and the criminals turn on themselves.
That's the bitch I was talking about. Like Carue, the
judge found our biggest deputy he could find to sit
between him and Watkins. I'm two hundred and eighty six pounds.
I would rip you like a rag doll.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.