October 16, 2018 • 43 mins
As Rae Carruth’s prison release date nears, Saundra Adams, the mother of the pregnant woman Carruth conspired to murder, tells us she’s found a way to forgive the men who killed Cherica Adams. She wonders what if any relationship Carruth should have with Chancellor Lee, as she honors her daughter’s legacy through advocacy work on behalf of domestic violence survivors.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
A listener. Note this story contains adult language and some
graphic descriptions of violence. Previously on Kruth, the defendant Ray
Lamar Kruth is guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, but
not guilty of the first three. Moray is walking out
(00:21):
of prison in October. And you know that was a
death penalty case. In a lot of ways, we sort
of won that case. If what they're saying is that
because Watkins took the plea and Caruth refused to take it,
they made their decision based on some subjective weighing process.
They did not follow the law whether he got nineteen
(00:43):
years like he did, or if he would have gotten
closer to forty years like Van Brett did. Rica still
d it and is not bringing her back. You could
be having a bad day in here if you're lucky
enough to be working with Lee. Never mind, always say
he's in the smile ministry. You know he's already and
he walking in his call and he he's happy. So
(01:09):
Van Brett, Watkins and I, since I've met with him,
have become correspondence. He has written me since I have
met with him in prison for that one three hour
plus interview, I'd say at least fifteen times, so today
just now opening this, But this is the first time
I've actually received a card from him, so I can
(01:32):
tell it's a card from the thickness of the envelope.
He always calls himself Monsieur Monsieur van Brett. Pierre Watkins
is how he always puts himself on the return address,
and he says, sir and close, please find a card
to Miss Sandra Adams. You may read it and then
(01:54):
forward it to her, and he signs it New York.
That was his nickname, all right, So the card starts peace,
Ms Adams and Chancellor. I read the last lie dumber
and dumber recently did with Mr Scott Fowler. He refers
to Crew sometimes as dumb and dumber or dumber and dumber.
(02:15):
He's done this for many of these fifteen letters. Uh,
and you don't believe that b s either. So thank
you for defending the God's honest truth. I told oh
so many years ago. Tell the world the absolute truth
all the things I've done. I don't care if I
make it to two thousand, forty or forty three or
forty six. This is what I am now after fifty
(02:37):
seven years. What I care about that. Ala forgives my
lifetime of major and minor sins that he allows me
to go to heaven and not to let me have
to eat the nasty foods and n C D O
C DPS mess halls. I'll take the good or bad
decision from Olah without crying and lying like dumbest a k. A.
(02:58):
Ray Wiggins p us. As you see, zebra never sheds
its stripes, nor does a leopard lose its spots. He's
still unrepentive. That's a danger to you and Chancellor From
the Charlotte Observer in McClatchy Studios, this is Caruth. I'm
(03:21):
Scott Fowler, and this is chapter seven Forgiveness. Here at
Child and Family Development in South Charlotte, Chancellor Lee is
hard at work doing things he was never supposed to
(03:44):
do from his room into the kitchen. Yeah. Why Amy
Sturkey has been the teenager's physical therapist for fourteen years now.
It's still I've onlie il s the last year. Got
so that I will walk beside him and not hold
(04:04):
on to him, that I can walk and go down
the hall. Now I do have him in the corner
of my eye even now as I go across the room,
I have my corner of my eye, but I can
leave you got this, and I can walk over and
pat you on the shoulder and come back and feel
like we're still gonna be there and be safe. Chancellor
Lee is almost nineteen. Doctors predicted he might never walk,
(04:24):
and progress has been slow, but it has been progress.
We started off on the treadmill where he could hold
on and I can control the speed, and that way,
at point three miles per hour he could get a
heel toe which treadmill start in the gym at point five,
so slower than the standard treadmill at the gym. Then
(04:45):
it was two hands held, so I'm not as steady
with my hands, and now we've progressed to go into
one hand held. And that's what probably in the last
six months we've been working the hardest on is trying
to get that heel toe walk. This transition into adulthood
is a crucial time for anyone living was so terrible palsy,
and Chancellor Lee is surpassing his physical goals at child
and family development. But Sturkey admits the question of how
(05:08):
reliant Chancellor Lee will be on Sandra in the future
does linger again, he's a marginal community ambulator. The goal
would be, I think he's starting some in the home
to walk on his own, but we want him to
be able to walk now out in the water community.
I think is a step in the future, but for now,
our goal would be that he could walk in the
home independently and be safe, that that she doesn't have
(05:29):
to be next to him everywhere he goes in the house.
And if he decides he wants to get up and
get the remote, because now he's always rushing me because
if I'm getting too slow, he's already and then I
hear him, I'm like, I'm coming, Lee. Can you imagine
as a team though, it's an appropriate independence for him
to have, for him to be able to go from
(05:51):
me sometimes across the room for whatever it is he
wants and come back okay safely. In John Embreyson HBO
Real Sports piece in which Bryant Gumbel interviewed Sandra and
Chancellor Lee. At the time, Embury was the head coach
at the University of Colorado, it had been nearly twenty
years since he had helped to successfully recruit Karuth. Back
(06:13):
when Embury was an assistant with the Buffaloes. Shortly after midnight,
with Watkins and his accomplices waiting in a nearby car,
Caruth and Adams left his house in separate cars to
supposedly spend the night at her place. After I got
to the hospital, I started Colin Ray because I'm thinking, oh,
my gosh, he didn't notice he's been shot. Did you
really think you would be that easy and you'd get
(06:35):
away with My fault is that I didn't do like
a hit mass should do, which is kill everybody on
the scene. The coach grew close to Kruth as the
wide receiver rose to All American status, and that kept
in contact after Kruth was drafted by the Carolina Panthers.
Then the receiver got arrested, tried, and sent to prison
(06:55):
for conspiring to murder Sharika. I mean, you're watching all
this and you're going what is going on? And I
just remember, as you know, thinking to myself, how could
this happen? Like what would drive someone to do this?
And then what would drive him to do something like this?
Like I just don't get it. I still don't get it.
(07:15):
Embury also wasn't sure what to do about it, but
by twelve, he had started a nonprofit called Buffs for
Life that supported former Colorado athletes through personal hardships. Buffal
Life an organization a group of men who are buffaloes.
Remember those cold practices, remember the the agony of being
(07:37):
a buffalo, and then also the joys of being a buffalo.
His family looking after after those who need it is
the foundation of what Bluff of Life is. Sandra and
Chancellor Lee had no connection to Colorado except for the
fact that a former Colorado's star had impacted their lives
so horrifically. You know, I'd always kind of wonder what
(08:00):
it happened with Sandra and Lee, you know, having had
the relationship with Ray and familiarity with all of that,
and uh, we're able to get ahold of her, and
we reached out to her, and then we're able to
fly out for that very first tournament. Buffs for Life
flew Sandra and her grandson out to Colorado for the
organization's first charity golf tournament. When everyone met her and
(08:21):
met Lee, it was like, I mean, everyone just for
a bear, like a term, just fell in love just
being around them and seeing her and her heart and
then seeing the courage and the fight and the drive
that Lee has. It was incredible having a grandchild that's
born disabled. People are saying, don't even try to do
(08:42):
anything with him. He's not gonna be one. He's been
going to walk and all these things that he's never
gonna do, and she never quit on them, and she
didn't blink. Buss for Life has raised more than one
sixty thousand dollars for the adams Is from donors all
over the world. They don't nations have helped cover the
cost of Chancellor Lee's medical care and living expenses. They
(09:09):
raised enough money so that in Sandra and her grandson
were able to move into a new house better suited
for the disabled. Inside there are framed photos everywhere of
Chancellor Lee as an infant and of Sandra wrapping her
arms around him, and just inside the front door one
of Sharika's showing off her pregnant belly, smiling about that
(09:29):
future that seemed full of limitless possibility. In the new home,
both of their bedrooms are on the first floor, and
an electric stairlift helps Chancellor Lee get to the second floor.
Outside the front door is a welcome math that says
whether you come to visit or just to rest. When
you enter our home, may you be blessed. Embury told
(09:52):
me that by getting to know the family he has
been I wish everybody could meet her and really just
sit down and talk with her. We because it's easy
for people to say, well, I know I would do this,
I would do that if this ever had that ever happened,
And here's someone in the middle of what could be
your worst nightmare as a parent. It truly does force
(10:14):
you to look at yourself and really, at least for me,
a question one. I know I'm a better person for
the times I've been able to talk with her and
just be around and see it like she never says.
I've never once heard her say why me not one time?
(10:34):
Money is often tight for the adams Is. For nearly
two decades, Sandra has spent her days as Chancellor Le's
full time caregiver. After Kruth and the other three conspirators
were convicted of criminal charges related to Sharika's killing, Sandra
filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit against the four men.
Soon a Mecklenburg Superior Court judge awarded her nearly six
(10:57):
million dollars in damages, but the four men had been
sentenced to combine seventy five years in prison. Kruth had
been declared indigent. To this day, the only money Saundra
says she's received from Kruth was a single ten thousand
dollar payment as lawyers divvied up Kruth's NFL retirement benefits.
That's all we have gotten from Ray Caruth. Ever, and
(11:22):
you know, the lawyers have to be paid, so I
didn't even get to keep all of the ten thousand.
So I'm really hoping he can get out and uh
get a book deal or movie deal or something that
will pay chancell of what he's due, because I do
intend to keep that active. Maybe he would have to
(11:43):
at least have some financial accountability because I've had to
make innumerable sacrifices in my life to take care of
my grandson, and I don't feel ashamed in any way
that it should be compensated. Embury's role as the primary
fundraiser for the Adams Is is somewhat ironic. He's long
(12:05):
coached for teams that play against Carolina and has no
Charlotte connection at all. The Panthers, of course, are Caruth's
former team. They distanced themselves from him. Long ago, and
largely did the same with Sandra and Chancellor Lee. There's
no really hard feelings between me and the Panthers. I
(12:25):
think they did what they should have done from a
business perspective, this was not the Panthers that committed the crime.
This is Ray car Rude. He's on his own. They
made the best business decision for the team. A Panthers
spokesman declined to comment on the record for this project,
but earlier this year, Jerry Richardson, the team's founding owner,
(12:48):
sold the Panthers to hedge fund manager David Tepper. As
Tepper told the twenty eighteen graduating class at Carnegie Mellon,
domestic violence is an issue he knows about all too well.
A kid who corn't ford to go to an NFL
game until well went to his twenties is on the
verge of getting the NFL's approval to buy the Carolina Panthers.
(13:10):
But believe me, it didn't start out that way. I
grew up in a working class neighborhood of Standing Heights
in the city of Pittsburgh. My dad, like a lot
of dad's, had to work sixty hours weeks just to
make ends meet. He was physically abusive to me. I'm
sure it was a cycle that he got from his father,
his father got from his father. In my young life,
(13:31):
there is no greater adversity. If I'm proud to say,
in what I view as the greatest accomplishment of my life,
I broke that cycle. With that background, it's possible to
change in ownership, could change the Panther's dealings with Sandra
and Chancellor Lee. I just think they could have been
(13:53):
a little more empathetic towards our family or something. And
it's not that I wanted anything monetarily from the Panthers.
I just think they could have showed up better. But
in the meantime, Sandra and Chancellor ly are doing just fine.
(14:13):
I was reminded of that at the end of his
recent therapy session. The two of them bumped into one
of Chancellor Ley's friends at Child and Family Development and
he lit up in a way I've never seen before.
My hair. Yeah, have you been on vacation? Sorry, then
(14:35):
go Wigo, Colorado? Where you going next week? Texas? Yea?
(14:57):
What is it that binds us to this place as
to no other? The University of the people, the people
watching Chancellor Lee's transition to adulthood often makes me think
of my own son, My oldest child. Chapel is twenty.
He was born just a year before Chancellor. Over the years,
I've been called away from home many times to go
(15:19):
cover developments in the ray Cruth story. Once I had
to balance him on my knee with one hand and
try to hold a phone and take notes with the
other while doing an interview about the case. This past August,
I dropped Chapel off for his junior year at the
University of North Carolina, the University of the People the People,
and spent much of the three hour drive home thinking
about first the first time I saw him read a
(15:41):
real book to himself, the first time. Sorry, that always
happens when I talk about them. Let's uh, let's go
on and let me think about whether I'll be able
to get through that, all right? Those moments often make
(16:05):
me think about Chancellor. Not long ago, I saw the
joy in his eyes when he typed his own name. Yeah,
can you just take the sentence? Good job, He too,
is trying to realize his full potential. Good As a reporter,
it's unusual to cover a story this long. First pick
(16:29):
in the draft Rarely does a writer or a family
stay in one place this long. I was fifteen on
this picture, and she was thirteen, and it was March
thirty one nine, and I wrote spring Break on the
bottom of it. I don't think we were going anywhere.
We just decided to take pictures together. Rarely does the
story keep growing and changing for this long. It's a story.
(16:53):
Caruth is mostly followed from Sampson Correctional Institution, about a
hundred and seventy miles east of Charlote. He's mostly been
a model inmate, having committed only four infractions in nineteen
years in prison. By contrast, Van Brett Watkins has committed
fifty one. Karuth has become a licensed barber, earning one
(17:16):
dollar a day plus tips to cut other inmates hair.
It's a far cry from the thirty eight thousand dollars
a game he earned with the Panthers, but friends tell
me he's made his peace with it and enjoys cutting hair.
When Kruth receives a tip, even if it's only a quarter,
he considers it a testament to a job well done.
The jury returned unanimous verdict as follows that the defendant
(17:38):
Ray Lamar Karuth is guilty of conspiracy. Following his sentencing,
Kruth's lawyers repeatedly appealed his verdict. At one point, a
court did find Judge Charles Lamb was wrong to allow
Sharika's handwritten hospital notes into evidence. Those notes implicated Karuth
in the shooting, but when she wrote them, Sharik was
(18:00):
on morphine and a variety of other drugs following surgery,
and seven hours had passed since the attack. David Rudolph
admits it's hard to know how much those notes swayed
the jury. He was Kruth's lead attorney during the trial.
You know, it's hard to tell. Evidence becomes sort of
a cumulative thing. It certainly wasn't as dramatic as the
(18:22):
nine one one call, but it's certainly added substance and
it added emphasis. But I think the nine one one
call was you know, hearing her voice is just a
really powerful thing. Despite the mistake in admitting those notes,
the appeals court ruled that a preponderance of other evidence
tied Kruth to the shooting, and a panel of judges
(18:45):
they are labeled the error quote harmless And let me
just say that Ray, you know, in a strange sort
of way. He sort of thinks it sort of came
out probably where it should have, in that he was
responsible for putting Sharika in that place. Kruth's conviction was
(19:05):
upheld there and at every other turn. Rudolph visited Kruth
in prison in August and received Kruth's authorization to speak
to me for this project. You know, it wouldn't have
been just for him to be convicted of first degree
murder or put on death row, but the fact he
ended up in prison for some significant period of time.
(19:26):
I don't think he's bitter about that. I mean, he
he blames himself for where he ended up. Uh, And
I think that's that's significant, you know. I mean, I
think for somebody to be able to have that level
of self awareness and and take responsibility like that um
is impressive. As I drove home from Chapel Hill, I
(19:50):
thought about fatherhood and my own son, and the new
responsibilities awaiting Kruth once he leaves prison, and whether or
not his new life will ever in clue the young
man learning to walk on his own at child and
family development come. In two decades of covering Sharika Adams
(20:18):
murder and its aftermath, I've heard so many things about
November six that seemed to defy reason. Yet one unbelievable
part of this saga stands out among all the others.
I first heard it from Sandra Adams at the sentencing
for the man who orchestrated her daughter's killing. I am
forgiving Ray Caruth. I am forgiving Ray Caruth, the man
(20:43):
who spent nineteen years in prison for conspiring to murder Sharika,
the man who permanently disabled his own son, Chancellor Lee.
I can't hate Ray Caruth because he is part of
my grandson. Sandra's grace despite her own sadness, was reflected
in a letter she wrote, but not to Caruth, to
(21:04):
the man who shot her daughter. Van Brett Watkins was
the only one of the four that actually reached out
to me to ask for some forgiveness. And he expressed remorse,
and I believed him, and I believed his story that
(21:25):
he was afraid of Ray Karruth, not the person, but
the power and what he could do. So Van Brett
Watkins sent me a letter expressing that and I did
right back to him, and it's dated April eighteenth and
two thousand three, and I said to him, Mr Watkins.
(21:46):
You know I am suffering because of your actions. I
will never be able to hold my beautiful daughter Shaika again.
Because of your actions, my grandson Chancellor cannot do the
simplest things like call me grand mommy or play ball
with the other children because of your actions. I have
(22:09):
a huge hole in my heart. But despite my grief,
I want you to know that I have forgiven you.
I know you are suffering too for the horrible choice
you made that day. I want you to know that
you will always be in my thoughts and prayers, and
I wish you peace. Sandra Adams, the two six pound
(22:31):
hit man who was capable of agreeing to murder a
pregnant woman for six thousand dollars, was shaken by Sandra's kindness.
As I sat there with Watkins in prison, he told
me Sandra's forgiveness in the face of everything he had
done to her family was what made him question the
man he had become and the depth of his hatred
(22:52):
for Caruth, I said. Karuth declined repeated invitations to speak
on the record for this project. He didn't testify at
(23:13):
his own trial outside of the one interview he did
with CNN. S I back in two thousand one. He's
never offered a full account of his side of the story.
The last on the record statements Kruth has made were
in that letter to me in chapter one, telling me
that some mistakes can never be made right. He sent
me that letter after talking to a TV station and
(23:35):
igniting a firestorm. Kruth wouldn't speak about the specifics of
that night in when Sharika was shot four times by
someone Kruth hired, but he does take responsibility. After years
of following his media coverage from prison, Kruth decided the
story had been told wrong too many times. He wrote
an open letter to Sandra in February and had it
(23:57):
delivered to Charlotte's w BTV. He followed that up with
a phone call. He knows his words may bring more anger,
and writes, I've long accepted my lot as a social pariah.
This is from Sarah Blake Morgan's report. I'm apologizing for
the loss of her daughter. I'm apologizing for the impairment
of my son. I feel responsible for everything that happened,
(24:18):
and I just want her to know that truly, I
am sorry for everything. At the controversial core of w
btv's report, however, was Gruth's need to quote debunk the
lies that Miss Adams continues to tell about me. He
also questioned her guardianship of his son. You know, I
let him down as he came into this world. And
the only way that I can make that right, the
(24:40):
only way that I could work us out my relationship
with my son is to be there for him and
to be your father and a dad to him. Going forward,
I should be raising my son. I want that responsibility back.
I've never heard Sandra angrier than that day when I
reached her by phone. I can say definitively, he's not
ever going to have custody of Chancellor. She told me
(25:02):
my grandson will never be raised by a stranger, someone
he doesn't know and who tried to kill him. Scott.
That letter was in no way at all an apology
to me. That letter was all about him. And I
was very fooled when I first heard those lines, because
(25:23):
I cried and I thought, finally he has come to
some repentance. This is what I've been praying for, that
he would just admit, be a man, admit what you did.
And so I was fooled because I saw those words.
I think he said that I could have done a
better job of keeping Sharik and Chancellor out of harm's way.
(25:47):
That is a true statement. He could have not planned it.
The blowback to that report was swift. For years, Sandra
had been adamant that she and Chancellor Lee would be
outside the prison gates way eating for Caruth when he
was released from Sampson, where the boy who wouldn't die
could stand face to face with the man who had
wanted him dead. And that may still be the case,
(26:10):
but today Sandra is far less certain. Getting out from
behind those four walls is not gonna make him free,
and I don't want him to be free until he
can admit what he did. And in the past I
didn't think it mattered, just do his time get out,
be free, going along his way. But I think as
(26:32):
the time gets closer for him to get out, I
am feeling very differently. I'm still feeling forgiving, and I
want still for him to meet his son, but I
do want him to feel the effects of what he did,
because that's what I've been looking at every day since
(26:54):
November sixteenth nine and seeing the hurt that this appointment,
seeing my dreams last. I want him to see that too.
Soon after that w BTV report, Carruth wrote me a
(27:15):
five page letter where he reversed course. I understand that
everyone believes that I initially tried to shirk the responsibility
of raising Chancellor. He wrote that I didn't want him.
But does that really mean that, after almost nineteen years
of incarceration, I'm supposed to be the same man that
I'm not supposed to want to make amends with Chancellor
(27:35):
and try to be the father that I should have
been from day one. Nevertheless, Kruth wrote to me he
was giving up on that idea. He told everyone to quote,
please calm down. I promised to leave them be, he wrote,
which I now see is in everyone's best interest. And
so we're clear. This will be the last time that
I make any comments concerning this situation. Caruthus stage to
(28:00):
those words, and so questions remain about what relationship, if any,
he will pursue with his son when Gruth is released.
Even Sandra struggles for clarity. On two occasions, I have
reached out to him. I asked him to go ahead
and send me the visitation papers, and I got no
response from him, and so I write to him again,
(28:24):
and this time, I did say to him that, you know,
he is not going to have a relationship with Chancellor
without sitting down and communicating with me. And I told
him that you are going to be missing out of
your son's life. And then I did add but that
(28:48):
doesn't phase you. He did not want him. He tried
to kill him. So I am not going to keep
begging a killer to want to be part of my
grandson's life, because my grandson is going to be sheltered
and covered and live a life with unconditional love, and
(29:09):
if he can't give that, there's no need for him
to be in his life. I'm still praying about where
I'm gonna be October. Part of me wants to be
there the day he walks out right there where he
has to come past me so he can acknowledge his son.
(29:29):
And then there's part of me that just wants to
be chilling out on a beach somewhere on October and
moving on with my life because I don't. The question
I have to ask myself is the same question Sharika
asked me that night. Why am I here? What is
(29:50):
this even about? Her questions come back the story of
Sharika's life is being heard today louder than ever. Sandra
has become a passionate advocate on behalf of domestic violence victims,
honoring her daughter's legacy by speaking to gatherings ranging from
the mothers of murdered offspring. I found out that you
(30:12):
sent them around and be pitiful and wallowing the pain
and let it just consume your life all the time.
Or you can take back your power. Let's keep my
thoughts on love. Let's keep my thoughts on forgivious. We're
deciding and we want this. That pain just rule our
(30:34):
whole lot, to vulnerable populations behind bars, forgiveness, to me
the whole hostage. Late last year, I captured this audio
from Mecklenburg County Jail on my phone. It's not and
(30:57):
sometimes national TV audiences to present the Walter Camp American
Hero Award for Here she is in New Haven, Connecticut,
at a celebration for the best college football players in
the country, being honored on ESPN. I think I'm a
grandmom that would do what she is supposed to do
(31:17):
in the face of tragedy. This award is first and
foremost for Shaika and then for my grandson, Chancellor H.
(31:37):
Here ten miles east of Uptown Charlotte. I met with
Sandra and Chancellor early one more time for this project
at Sharika's final resting place. Cool. You see Mommy angels,
Grace does pretty Adams, Mommy angel all right, m hm,
(32:03):
Pine and oak trees ring the white open grounds. Here
there's a bright blue sky overhead. A vase full of
purple and yellow flowers sits by Sharika's headstone, which is
adorned with a familiar sight, the same sort of butterflies
she loved as a child, etched in bronze because they
had several different little border things. But I told him,
(32:25):
I said, well, I know, I want butterflies on it.
I want it. Sharik and chancelloroud have same initials, so
they do. See La Chancellor Lee Adams and Sharika Luvinia Adams.
Sharika had my mom's middle name, and Chancellor has my
dad's middle name, A Lee. Yeah, because Lee is the
(32:47):
family name. Yeah. So yeah, so cee l A and
c l A here at Sunset Memory Gardens. It's only
natural Sondra would reflect again upon those family traditions handed
down through the generations. We don't have any more heirs
to the Adam's name and he's the last boy. Really yeah,
(33:08):
because see my sister's children are not Adams. Is there
her husband's last name? So I was like, we it's
a lot riding only here, it's a lot riding on. Yeah,
a lot of pressure, man. Yeah, you got to carry
on the Adam's name. Yeah, I don't know. You're kind
of flirty. I don't know You're gonna carry on the
(33:30):
Adam's name. Boy. You got two girl friends, I don't know,
two girlfriends. Yeah. Days away from Caruth's release from prison,
I wondered if she had any new thoughts on the
man convicted of conspiring to kill her daughter. Basically, you
know what from the journal entries did I have from
(33:53):
Sharika and from my perspective of what Sharika thought their
relationship was, I've to leave. Sharika loved Ray and so
if she saw some good in him, I want to
dig and dig and dig until I find that good too.
I also wanted to deliver to them the card Van
(34:15):
Brett Watkins sent me. I think he has plenty of
time to write letters. He really has a nice penmanship
he does. It's very readable and to make sure she
saw Watkins closing thought, which stuck with me. A zebra
never sheds his stripes, nor does a leopard lose his spots.
He's still unrepentive. That's a danger to you and Chancellor.
(34:38):
Um hmm, okay, what do you think. I think it's
written in all sincerity, and I believe he's doing his
best to warn me that last bed of the person
(35:00):
that he knows. And um, I actually feel some of
the same kind of way. Yeah. I think the Great
Maya Angelo summed it up the best. When people show
you who they are, believe them the first time. Ray
is a coward. So Ray would never come back here
(35:23):
and do anything. But that doesn't mean he wouldn't send someone.
So I am a little anxious, and I'm not going
to live in fear, but I'm taking a lot of precautions.
Where Caruth goes after his release remains a question. I've
(35:44):
been told over the past year that maybe he'll return
home to California or remain in North Carolina. I've been
told he might get married, or that he might change
his name. One thing we do know, soon his sentence
will be over. He's only forty four years old. I
think he's looking forward to, uh getting out and restarting
his life. Here again is David Rudolph, Kruth's lawyer. He's
(36:07):
matured immensely, as you can imagine, um and uh it
feels very strongly that he wants to just sort of
try to do something positive with the rest of his life.
Caruth will be a free man and will have paid
his debt to society. But as society forgiving him, you know,
it does not bother me a bit that he's going
to be getting out of jail. This is Clark Pennell,
(36:29):
the jury foreman in Kruth's trial. He was given a trial,
he was convicted, he served his time, and it's time
for all of us to be getting out with our lives.
Ruth orchestrated that murder. This is Darryl Price, one of
the detectives who investigated Sharika's murder. He was convicted of
conspiracy to commit murder, but not the actual murder itself.
(36:51):
I don't even understand how that's possible. If you're convicted
of conspiracy to commit a murder that actually occurred, I
don't know how you could not found guilty of that
actual murder. Absolutely, I do not think he's guilty, and
I think it's a less carriage of justice. Here's Monique Young,
one of Kruth's longtime friends. It just hurts my heart,
(37:11):
you know what. I mean that he's had to deal
with this for so long, but he's such a strong
person that I think he's dealt with it very good.
And Dosha Hikey, the doctor who cared for Chancellor Lye
at the hospital. I mean he planned this. He was
supposed to kill her in the baby. You know, that's
what he wanted. It was them, heard them to be gone.
And that's just from someone who cares a lot about
(37:34):
Sander and Chancellor. You know, I was like, right, the
son of a bitch was what I wanted. I think
it's a Travis him and the guy with death penalty eligible,
and it would have been an appropriate sentence for him
in my view. Here's Tom Athey, who led the police
investigation into Sharika's murder. I mean, look what he did
through is on child. You really can't get beyond that.
When you make a choice to take two lives, can
(37:56):
you really change from that? And Valerie Brooks, one of
Sharika's best friends, Is that possible? I just don't know
that that can happen. I don't know that he's remorseful.
This is Van Brett Watkins, the hipman who's still consumed
by hatred for Kruth. What did you feel about Ray
Kruth now? And this is Sandra again. So what he did,
(38:20):
it deserves the harshest punishment. He deserves to be dead
for what he did to my daughter. But I forgive
him because I want to love my grandson unconditionally. And
I don't even want to see Ray Krruth go to hell.
(38:41):
I want him to come to repentance. I want to
forgive him so that I can move on and enjoy
the fruits of my labor and enjoy my life, because
if I'm sitting around and unforgiveness, it's like me drinking
(39:01):
poison and hoping he's gonna die. And that's not gonna
happen for now anyway. Chancellor Lee is here at Child
and Family Development, continuing to work toward new goals. Today
he's moved beyond the spoon and is working with occupational
(39:21):
therapist Meghan Davidson Palmer on a new challenge, cutting plato
with a plastic fork and knife. So you're just using
the fork to kind of hold its steady and then
you're cutting it from there. Okay, there you go. Wow good,
He grins yet again. And in a way, I think
(39:43):
this young man was what all of this was about.
Rake Ruth didn't want him, Van Brett Watkins tried to
kill him. Sharika Adams saved him, Sandra Adams raised him.
Countless others have supported and protected and nurtured him. He
was born from tragedy and has spent nearly every day
(40:03):
since in the embrace of a grandmother who will go
to any links to see that Chancellor Lee is loved.
It's really not even about the crime, because all of
us go through our death of a loved one sometimes
and when we focus on what we've lost, we don't
see what we have left. So today my focus is
(40:26):
on what I have left and all the joy that
has brought me, and that in some ways, if this
hadn't happened, I never would have stepped into the greatness
that God had for me, because it has shown me
a part of me that I didn't know lived in there.
(40:46):
I am bigger than I thought I was. I am
more faithful than I thought I was. I'm more loving
and compassionate than I ever thought I could be, And
for that I really have Ray caer Roof to thank.
(41:13):
With Autumn here again, Preparations are already underway for Chancellor
Lee's upcoming birthday. This time last year, I spent the
afternoon with him and Sandra and Charlotte's Freedom Park, just
across the street from the hospital where Chancellor was born.
It was like it was just a couple of years
ago we were bringing him home from the hospital. So
(41:34):
it's amazing. I'm just so thankful that I can associate
November sixteenth with the day my grandchild was born. Our
mutual boy, you have a birthday coming up? Yeah, do
you know when your birthday is? Charley Jake? November sixteenth?
(41:55):
That's right. I'm Scott Fowler and this podcast is produced
by Jeff Signer and Rachel Wise and Davin Coburn at
McClatchy Studios. Are we on boak right now? That's hot
and sometimes it's a midlife thing, so can we with
(42:18):
a good land? Good job? All right, job, I'm gonna
take okay, stop asking from chance I may not need
to come anymore. It's going to interview you find lots
(42:42):
more about this case at Charlotte Observer dot com slash
CARU and for just thirty dollars, subscribe now to a
full year of the Observer's award winning sports coverage at
Charlotte observer dot com slash sports pass. A special thank
you to Sherry Chisenhall, Robin Tomlin, Gary Schwab, Mike Persinger,
(43:02):
Gene Siegel, and Jonathan Forsyth for their support of this project.
And thank you to our nonprofit partners No More, the
National Coalition Against Domestic Violence Safe Alliance and the Children's
Defense Fund. Leave us a rating and a review on
Apple Podcast, and you can reach me directly at s
Fowler at Charlotte observer dot com. Thanks so much for listening.
A listener. Note this story contains adult language and some
graphic descriptions of violence. Previously on Kruth, the defendant Ray
Lamar Kruth is guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, but
not guilty of the first three. Moray is walking out
(00:21):
of prison in October. And you know that was a
death penalty case. In a lot of ways, we sort
of won that case. If what they're saying is that
because Watkins took the plea and Caruth refused to take it,
they made their decision based on some subjective weighing process.
They did not follow the law whether he got nineteen
(00:43):
years like he did, or if he would have gotten
closer to forty years like Van Brett did. Rica still
d it and is not bringing her back. You could
be having a bad day in here if you're lucky
enough to be working with Lee. Never mind, always say
he's in the smile ministry. You know he's already and
he walking in his call and he he's happy. So
(01:09):
Van Brett, Watkins and I, since I've met with him,
have become correspondence. He has written me since I have
met with him in prison for that one three hour
plus interview, I'd say at least fifteen times, so today
just now opening this, But this is the first time
I've actually received a card from him, so I can
(01:32):
tell it's a card from the thickness of the envelope.
He always calls himself Monsieur Monsieur van Brett. Pierre Watkins
is how he always puts himself on the return address,
and he says, sir and close, please find a card
to Miss Sandra Adams. You may read it and then
(01:54):
forward it to her, and he signs it New York.
That was his nickname, all right, So the card starts peace,
Ms Adams and Chancellor. I read the last lie dumber
and dumber recently did with Mr Scott Fowler. He refers
to Crew sometimes as dumb and dumber or dumber and dumber.
(02:15):
He's done this for many of these fifteen letters. Uh,
and you don't believe that b s either. So thank
you for defending the God's honest truth. I told oh
so many years ago. Tell the world the absolute truth
all the things I've done. I don't care if I
make it to two thousand, forty or forty three or
forty six. This is what I am now after fifty
(02:37):
seven years. What I care about that. Ala forgives my
lifetime of major and minor sins that he allows me
to go to heaven and not to let me have
to eat the nasty foods and n C D O
C DPS mess halls. I'll take the good or bad
decision from Olah without crying and lying like dumbest a k. A.
(02:58):
Ray Wiggins p us. As you see, zebra never sheds
its stripes, nor does a leopard lose its spots. He's
still unrepentive. That's a danger to you and Chancellor From
the Charlotte Observer in McClatchy Studios, this is Caruth. I'm
(03:21):
Scott Fowler, and this is chapter seven Forgiveness. Here at
Child and Family Development in South Charlotte, Chancellor Lee is
hard at work doing things he was never supposed to
(03:44):
do from his room into the kitchen. Yeah. Why Amy
Sturkey has been the teenager's physical therapist for fourteen years now.
It's still I've onlie il s the last year. Got
so that I will walk beside him and not hold
(04:04):
on to him, that I can walk and go down
the hall. Now I do have him in the corner
of my eye even now as I go across the room,
I have my corner of my eye, but I can
leave you got this, and I can walk over and
pat you on the shoulder and come back and feel
like we're still gonna be there and be safe. Chancellor
Lee is almost nineteen. Doctors predicted he might never walk,
(04:24):
and progress has been slow, but it has been progress.
We started off on the treadmill where he could hold
on and I can control the speed, and that way,
at point three miles per hour he could get a
heel toe which treadmill start in the gym at point five,
so slower than the standard treadmill at the gym. Then
(04:45):
it was two hands held, so I'm not as steady
with my hands, and now we've progressed to go into
one hand held. And that's what probably in the last
six months we've been working the hardest on is trying
to get that heel toe walk. This transition into adulthood
is a crucial time for anyone living was so terrible palsy,
and Chancellor Lee is surpassing his physical goals at child
and family development. But Sturkey admits the question of how
(05:08):
reliant Chancellor Lee will be on Sandra in the future
does linger again, he's a marginal community ambulator. The goal
would be, I think he's starting some in the home
to walk on his own, but we want him to
be able to walk now out in the water community.
I think is a step in the future, but for now,
our goal would be that he could walk in the
home independently and be safe, that that she doesn't have
(05:29):
to be next to him everywhere he goes in the house.
And if he decides he wants to get up and
get the remote, because now he's always rushing me because
if I'm getting too slow, he's already and then I
hear him, I'm like, I'm coming, Lee. Can you imagine
as a team though, it's an appropriate independence for him
to have, for him to be able to go from
(05:51):
me sometimes across the room for whatever it is he
wants and come back okay safely. In John Embreyson HBO
Real Sports piece in which Bryant Gumbel interviewed Sandra and
Chancellor Lee. At the time, Embury was the head coach
at the University of Colorado, it had been nearly twenty
years since he had helped to successfully recruit Karuth. Back
(06:13):
when Embury was an assistant with the Buffaloes. Shortly after midnight,
with Watkins and his accomplices waiting in a nearby car,
Caruth and Adams left his house in separate cars to
supposedly spend the night at her place. After I got
to the hospital, I started Colin Ray because I'm thinking, oh,
my gosh, he didn't notice he's been shot. Did you
really think you would be that easy and you'd get
(06:35):
away with My fault is that I didn't do like
a hit mass should do, which is kill everybody on
the scene. The coach grew close to Kruth as the
wide receiver rose to All American status, and that kept
in contact after Kruth was drafted by the Carolina Panthers.
Then the receiver got arrested, tried, and sent to prison
(06:55):
for conspiring to murder Sharika. I mean, you're watching all
this and you're going what is going on? And I
just remember, as you know, thinking to myself, how could
this happen? Like what would drive someone to do this?
And then what would drive him to do something like this?
Like I just don't get it. I still don't get it.
(07:15):
Embury also wasn't sure what to do about it, but
by twelve, he had started a nonprofit called Buffs for
Life that supported former Colorado athletes through personal hardships. Buffal
Life an organization a group of men who are buffaloes.
Remember those cold practices, remember the the agony of being
(07:37):
a buffalo, and then also the joys of being a buffalo.
His family looking after after those who need it is
the foundation of what Bluff of Life is. Sandra and
Chancellor Lee had no connection to Colorado except for the
fact that a former Colorado's star had impacted their lives
so horrifically. You know, I'd always kind of wonder what
(08:00):
it happened with Sandra and Lee, you know, having had
the relationship with Ray and familiarity with all of that,
and uh, we're able to get ahold of her, and
we reached out to her, and then we're able to
fly out for that very first tournament. Buffs for Life
flew Sandra and her grandson out to Colorado for the
organization's first charity golf tournament. When everyone met her and
(08:21):
met Lee, it was like, I mean, everyone just for
a bear, like a term, just fell in love just
being around them and seeing her and her heart and
then seeing the courage and the fight and the drive
that Lee has. It was incredible having a grandchild that's
born disabled. People are saying, don't even try to do
(08:42):
anything with him. He's not gonna be one. He's been
going to walk and all these things that he's never
gonna do, and she never quit on them, and she
didn't blink. Buss for Life has raised more than one
sixty thousand dollars for the adams Is from donors all
over the world. They don't nations have helped cover the
cost of Chancellor Lee's medical care and living expenses. They
(09:09):
raised enough money so that in Sandra and her grandson
were able to move into a new house better suited
for the disabled. Inside there are framed photos everywhere of
Chancellor Lee as an infant and of Sandra wrapping her
arms around him, and just inside the front door one
of Sharika's showing off her pregnant belly, smiling about that
(09:29):
future that seemed full of limitless possibility. In the new home,
both of their bedrooms are on the first floor, and
an electric stairlift helps Chancellor Lee get to the second floor.
Outside the front door is a welcome math that says
whether you come to visit or just to rest. When
you enter our home, may you be blessed. Embury told
(09:52):
me that by getting to know the family he has
been I wish everybody could meet her and really just
sit down and talk with her. We because it's easy
for people to say, well, I know I would do this,
I would do that if this ever had that ever happened,
And here's someone in the middle of what could be
your worst nightmare as a parent. It truly does force
(10:14):
you to look at yourself and really, at least for me,
a question one. I know I'm a better person for
the times I've been able to talk with her and
just be around and see it like she never says.
I've never once heard her say why me not one time?
(10:34):
Money is often tight for the adams Is. For nearly
two decades, Sandra has spent her days as Chancellor Le's
full time caregiver. After Kruth and the other three conspirators
were convicted of criminal charges related to Sharika's killing, Sandra
filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit against the four men.
Soon a Mecklenburg Superior Court judge awarded her nearly six
(10:57):
million dollars in damages, but the four men had been
sentenced to combine seventy five years in prison. Kruth had
been declared indigent. To this day, the only money Saundra
says she's received from Kruth was a single ten thousand
dollar payment as lawyers divvied up Kruth's NFL retirement benefits.
That's all we have gotten from Ray Caruth. Ever, and
(11:22):
you know, the lawyers have to be paid, so I
didn't even get to keep all of the ten thousand.
So I'm really hoping he can get out and uh
get a book deal or movie deal or something that
will pay chancell of what he's due, because I do
intend to keep that active. Maybe he would have to
(11:43):
at least have some financial accountability because I've had to
make innumerable sacrifices in my life to take care of
my grandson, and I don't feel ashamed in any way
that it should be compensated. Embury's role as the primary
fundraiser for the Adams Is is somewhat ironic. He's long
(12:05):
coached for teams that play against Carolina and has no
Charlotte connection at all. The Panthers, of course, are Caruth's
former team. They distanced themselves from him. Long ago, and
largely did the same with Sandra and Chancellor Lee. There's
no really hard feelings between me and the Panthers. I
(12:25):
think they did what they should have done from a
business perspective, this was not the Panthers that committed the crime.
This is Ray car Rude. He's on his own. They
made the best business decision for the team. A Panthers
spokesman declined to comment on the record for this project,
but earlier this year, Jerry Richardson, the team's founding owner,
(12:48):
sold the Panthers to hedge fund manager David Tepper. As
Tepper told the twenty eighteen graduating class at Carnegie Mellon,
domestic violence is an issue he knows about all too well.
A kid who corn't ford to go to an NFL
game until well went to his twenties is on the
verge of getting the NFL's approval to buy the Carolina Panthers.
(13:10):
But believe me, it didn't start out that way. I
grew up in a working class neighborhood of Standing Heights
in the city of Pittsburgh. My dad, like a lot
of dad's, had to work sixty hours weeks just to
make ends meet. He was physically abusive to me. I'm
sure it was a cycle that he got from his father,
his father got from his father. In my young life,
(13:31):
there is no greater adversity. If I'm proud to say,
in what I view as the greatest accomplishment of my life,
I broke that cycle. With that background, it's possible to
change in ownership, could change the Panther's dealings with Sandra
and Chancellor Lee. I just think they could have been
(13:53):
a little more empathetic towards our family or something. And
it's not that I wanted anything monetarily from the Panthers.
I just think they could have showed up better. But
in the meantime, Sandra and Chancellor ly are doing just fine.
(14:13):
I was reminded of that at the end of his
recent therapy session. The two of them bumped into one
of Chancellor Ley's friends at Child and Family Development and
he lit up in a way I've never seen before.
My hair. Yeah, have you been on vacation? Sorry, then
(14:35):
go Wigo, Colorado? Where you going next week? Texas? Yea?
(14:57):
What is it that binds us to this place as
to no other? The University of the people, the people
watching Chancellor Lee's transition to adulthood often makes me think
of my own son, My oldest child. Chapel is twenty.
He was born just a year before Chancellor. Over the years,
I've been called away from home many times to go
(15:19):
cover developments in the ray Cruth story. Once I had
to balance him on my knee with one hand and
try to hold a phone and take notes with the
other while doing an interview about the case. This past August,
I dropped Chapel off for his junior year at the
University of North Carolina, the University of the People the People,
and spent much of the three hour drive home thinking
about first the first time I saw him read a
(15:41):
real book to himself, the first time. Sorry, that always
happens when I talk about them. Let's uh, let's go
on and let me think about whether I'll be able
to get through that, all right? Those moments often make
(16:05):
me think about Chancellor. Not long ago, I saw the
joy in his eyes when he typed his own name. Yeah,
can you just take the sentence? Good job, He too,
is trying to realize his full potential. Good As a reporter,
it's unusual to cover a story this long. First pick
(16:29):
in the draft Rarely does a writer or a family
stay in one place this long. I was fifteen on
this picture, and she was thirteen, and it was March
thirty one nine, and I wrote spring Break on the
bottom of it. I don't think we were going anywhere.
We just decided to take pictures together. Rarely does the
story keep growing and changing for this long. It's a story.
(16:53):
Caruth is mostly followed from Sampson Correctional Institution, about a
hundred and seventy miles east of Charlote. He's mostly been
a model inmate, having committed only four infractions in nineteen
years in prison. By contrast, Van Brett Watkins has committed
fifty one. Karuth has become a licensed barber, earning one
(17:16):
dollar a day plus tips to cut other inmates hair.
It's a far cry from the thirty eight thousand dollars
a game he earned with the Panthers, but friends tell
me he's made his peace with it and enjoys cutting hair.
When Kruth receives a tip, even if it's only a quarter,
he considers it a testament to a job well done.
The jury returned unanimous verdict as follows that the defendant
(17:38):
Ray Lamar Karuth is guilty of conspiracy. Following his sentencing,
Kruth's lawyers repeatedly appealed his verdict. At one point, a
court did find Judge Charles Lamb was wrong to allow
Sharika's handwritten hospital notes into evidence. Those notes implicated Karuth
in the shooting, but when she wrote them, Sharik was
(18:00):
on morphine and a variety of other drugs following surgery,
and seven hours had passed since the attack. David Rudolph
admits it's hard to know how much those notes swayed
the jury. He was Kruth's lead attorney during the trial.
You know, it's hard to tell. Evidence becomes sort of
a cumulative thing. It certainly wasn't as dramatic as the
(18:22):
nine one one call, but it's certainly added substance and
it added emphasis. But I think the nine one one
call was you know, hearing her voice is just a
really powerful thing. Despite the mistake in admitting those notes,
the appeals court ruled that a preponderance of other evidence
tied Kruth to the shooting, and a panel of judges
(18:45):
they are labeled the error quote harmless And let me
just say that Ray, you know, in a strange sort
of way. He sort of thinks it sort of came
out probably where it should have, in that he was
responsible for putting Sharika in that place. Kruth's conviction was
(19:05):
upheld there and at every other turn. Rudolph visited Kruth
in prison in August and received Kruth's authorization to speak
to me for this project. You know, it wouldn't have
been just for him to be convicted of first degree
murder or put on death row, but the fact he
ended up in prison for some significant period of time.
(19:26):
I don't think he's bitter about that. I mean, he
he blames himself for where he ended up. Uh, And
I think that's that's significant, you know. I mean, I
think for somebody to be able to have that level
of self awareness and and take responsibility like that um
is impressive. As I drove home from Chapel Hill, I
(19:50):
thought about fatherhood and my own son, and the new
responsibilities awaiting Kruth once he leaves prison, and whether or
not his new life will ever in clue the young
man learning to walk on his own at child and
family development come. In two decades of covering Sharika Adams
(20:18):
murder and its aftermath, I've heard so many things about
November six that seemed to defy reason. Yet one unbelievable
part of this saga stands out among all the others.
I first heard it from Sandra Adams at the sentencing
for the man who orchestrated her daughter's killing. I am
forgiving Ray Caruth. I am forgiving Ray Caruth, the man
(20:43):
who spent nineteen years in prison for conspiring to murder Sharika,
the man who permanently disabled his own son, Chancellor Lee.
I can't hate Ray Caruth because he is part of
my grandson. Sandra's grace despite her own sadness, was reflected
in a letter she wrote, but not to Caruth, to
(21:04):
the man who shot her daughter. Van Brett Watkins was
the only one of the four that actually reached out
to me to ask for some forgiveness. And he expressed remorse,
and I believed him, and I believed his story that
(21:25):
he was afraid of Ray Karruth, not the person, but
the power and what he could do. So Van Brett
Watkins sent me a letter expressing that and I did
right back to him, and it's dated April eighteenth and
two thousand three, and I said to him, Mr Watkins.
(21:46):
You know I am suffering because of your actions. I
will never be able to hold my beautiful daughter Shaika again.
Because of your actions, my grandson Chancellor cannot do the
simplest things like call me grand mommy or play ball
with the other children because of your actions. I have
(22:09):
a huge hole in my heart. But despite my grief,
I want you to know that I have forgiven you.
I know you are suffering too for the horrible choice
you made that day. I want you to know that
you will always be in my thoughts and prayers, and
I wish you peace. Sandra Adams, the two six pound
(22:31):
hit man who was capable of agreeing to murder a
pregnant woman for six thousand dollars, was shaken by Sandra's kindness.
As I sat there with Watkins in prison, he told
me Sandra's forgiveness in the face of everything he had
done to her family was what made him question the
man he had become and the depth of his hatred
(22:52):
for Caruth, I said. Karuth declined repeated invitations to speak
on the record for this project. He didn't testify at
(23:13):
his own trial outside of the one interview he did
with CNN. S I back in two thousand one. He's
never offered a full account of his side of the story.
The last on the record statements Kruth has made were
in that letter to me in chapter one, telling me
that some mistakes can never be made right. He sent
me that letter after talking to a TV station and
(23:35):
igniting a firestorm. Kruth wouldn't speak about the specifics of
that night in when Sharika was shot four times by
someone Kruth hired, but he does take responsibility. After years
of following his media coverage from prison, Kruth decided the
story had been told wrong too many times. He wrote
an open letter to Sandra in February and had it
(23:57):
delivered to Charlotte's w BTV. He followed that up with
a phone call. He knows his words may bring more anger,
and writes, I've long accepted my lot as a social pariah.
This is from Sarah Blake Morgan's report. I'm apologizing for
the loss of her daughter. I'm apologizing for the impairment
of my son. I feel responsible for everything that happened,
(24:18):
and I just want her to know that truly, I
am sorry for everything. At the controversial core of w
btv's report, however, was Gruth's need to quote debunk the
lies that Miss Adams continues to tell about me. He
also questioned her guardianship of his son. You know, I
let him down as he came into this world. And
the only way that I can make that right, the
(24:40):
only way that I could work us out my relationship
with my son is to be there for him and
to be your father and a dad to him. Going forward,
I should be raising my son. I want that responsibility back.
I've never heard Sandra angrier than that day when I
reached her by phone. I can say definitively, he's not
ever going to have custody of Chancellor. She told me
(25:02):
my grandson will never be raised by a stranger, someone
he doesn't know and who tried to kill him. Scott.
That letter was in no way at all an apology
to me. That letter was all about him. And I
was very fooled when I first heard those lines, because
(25:23):
I cried and I thought, finally he has come to
some repentance. This is what I've been praying for, that
he would just admit, be a man, admit what you did.
And so I was fooled because I saw those words.
I think he said that I could have done a
better job of keeping Sharik and Chancellor out of harm's way.
(25:47):
That is a true statement. He could have not planned it.
The blowback to that report was swift. For years, Sandra
had been adamant that she and Chancellor Lee would be
outside the prison gates way eating for Caruth when he
was released from Sampson, where the boy who wouldn't die
could stand face to face with the man who had
wanted him dead. And that may still be the case,
(26:10):
but today Sandra is far less certain. Getting out from
behind those four walls is not gonna make him free,
and I don't want him to be free until he
can admit what he did. And in the past I
didn't think it mattered, just do his time get out,
be free, going along his way. But I think as
(26:32):
the time gets closer for him to get out, I
am feeling very differently. I'm still feeling forgiving, and I
want still for him to meet his son, but I
do want him to feel the effects of what he did,
because that's what I've been looking at every day since
(26:54):
November sixteenth nine and seeing the hurt that this appointment,
seeing my dreams last. I want him to see that too.
Soon after that w BTV report, Carruth wrote me a
(27:15):
five page letter where he reversed course. I understand that
everyone believes that I initially tried to shirk the responsibility
of raising Chancellor. He wrote that I didn't want him.
But does that really mean that, after almost nineteen years
of incarceration, I'm supposed to be the same man that
I'm not supposed to want to make amends with Chancellor
(27:35):
and try to be the father that I should have
been from day one. Nevertheless, Kruth wrote to me he
was giving up on that idea. He told everyone to quote,
please calm down. I promised to leave them be, he wrote,
which I now see is in everyone's best interest. And
so we're clear. This will be the last time that
I make any comments concerning this situation. Caruthus stage to
(28:00):
those words, and so questions remain about what relationship, if any,
he will pursue with his son when Gruth is released.
Even Sandra struggles for clarity. On two occasions, I have
reached out to him. I asked him to go ahead
and send me the visitation papers, and I got no
response from him, and so I write to him again,
(28:24):
and this time, I did say to him that, you know,
he is not going to have a relationship with Chancellor
without sitting down and communicating with me. And I told
him that you are going to be missing out of
your son's life. And then I did add but that
(28:48):
doesn't phase you. He did not want him. He tried
to kill him. So I am not going to keep
begging a killer to want to be part of my
grandson's life, because my grandson is going to be sheltered
and covered and live a life with unconditional love, and
(29:09):
if he can't give that, there's no need for him
to be in his life. I'm still praying about where
I'm gonna be October. Part of me wants to be
there the day he walks out right there where he
has to come past me so he can acknowledge his son.
(29:29):
And then there's part of me that just wants to
be chilling out on a beach somewhere on October and
moving on with my life because I don't. The question
I have to ask myself is the same question Sharika
asked me that night. Why am I here? What is
(29:50):
this even about? Her questions come back the story of
Sharika's life is being heard today louder than ever. Sandra
has become a passionate advocate on behalf of domestic violence victims,
honoring her daughter's legacy by speaking to gatherings ranging from
the mothers of murdered offspring. I found out that you
(30:12):
sent them around and be pitiful and wallowing the pain
and let it just consume your life all the time.
Or you can take back your power. Let's keep my
thoughts on love. Let's keep my thoughts on forgivious. We're
deciding and we want this. That pain just rule our
(30:34):
whole lot, to vulnerable populations behind bars, forgiveness, to me
the whole hostage. Late last year, I captured this audio
from Mecklenburg County Jail on my phone. It's not and
(30:57):
sometimes national TV audiences to present the Walter Camp American
Hero Award for Here she is in New Haven, Connecticut,
at a celebration for the best college football players in
the country, being honored on ESPN. I think I'm a
grandmom that would do what she is supposed to do
(31:17):
in the face of tragedy. This award is first and
foremost for Shaika and then for my grandson, Chancellor H.
(31:37):
Here ten miles east of Uptown Charlotte. I met with
Sandra and Chancellor early one more time for this project
at Sharika's final resting place. Cool. You see Mommy angels,
Grace does pretty Adams, Mommy angel all right, m hm,
(32:03):
Pine and oak trees ring the white open grounds. Here
there's a bright blue sky overhead. A vase full of
purple and yellow flowers sits by Sharika's headstone, which is
adorned with a familiar sight, the same sort of butterflies
she loved as a child, etched in bronze because they
had several different little border things. But I told him,
(32:25):
I said, well, I know, I want butterflies on it.
I want it. Sharik and chancelloroud have same initials, so
they do. See La Chancellor Lee Adams and Sharika Luvinia Adams.
Sharika had my mom's middle name, and Chancellor has my
dad's middle name, A Lee. Yeah, because Lee is the
(32:47):
family name. Yeah. So yeah, so cee l A and
c l A here at Sunset Memory Gardens. It's only
natural Sondra would reflect again upon those family traditions handed
down through the generations. We don't have any more heirs
to the Adam's name and he's the last boy. Really yeah,
(33:08):
because see my sister's children are not Adams. Is there
her husband's last name? So I was like, we it's
a lot riding only here, it's a lot riding on. Yeah,
a lot of pressure, man. Yeah, you got to carry
on the Adam's name. Yeah, I don't know. You're kind
of flirty. I don't know You're gonna carry on the
(33:30):
Adam's name. Boy. You got two girl friends, I don't know,
two girlfriends. Yeah. Days away from Caruth's release from prison,
I wondered if she had any new thoughts on the
man convicted of conspiring to kill her daughter. Basically, you
know what from the journal entries did I have from
(33:53):
Sharika and from my perspective of what Sharika thought their
relationship was, I've to leave. Sharika loved Ray and so
if she saw some good in him, I want to
dig and dig and dig until I find that good too.
I also wanted to deliver to them the card Van
(34:15):
Brett Watkins sent me. I think he has plenty of
time to write letters. He really has a nice penmanship
he does. It's very readable and to make sure she
saw Watkins closing thought, which stuck with me. A zebra
never sheds his stripes, nor does a leopard lose his spots.
He's still unrepentive. That's a danger to you and Chancellor.
(34:38):
Um hmm, okay, what do you think. I think it's
written in all sincerity, and I believe he's doing his
best to warn me that last bed of the person
(35:00):
that he knows. And um, I actually feel some of
the same kind of way. Yeah. I think the Great
Maya Angelo summed it up the best. When people show
you who they are, believe them the first time. Ray
is a coward. So Ray would never come back here
(35:23):
and do anything. But that doesn't mean he wouldn't send someone.
So I am a little anxious, and I'm not going
to live in fear, but I'm taking a lot of precautions.
Where Caruth goes after his release remains a question. I've
(35:44):
been told over the past year that maybe he'll return
home to California or remain in North Carolina. I've been
told he might get married, or that he might change
his name. One thing we do know, soon his sentence
will be over. He's only forty four years old. I
think he's looking forward to, uh getting out and restarting
his life. Here again is David Rudolph, Kruth's lawyer. He's
(36:07):
matured immensely, as you can imagine, um and uh it
feels very strongly that he wants to just sort of
try to do something positive with the rest of his life.
Caruth will be a free man and will have paid
his debt to society. But as society forgiving him, you know,
it does not bother me a bit that he's going
to be getting out of jail. This is Clark Pennell,
(36:29):
the jury foreman in Kruth's trial. He was given a trial,
he was convicted, he served his time, and it's time
for all of us to be getting out with our lives.
Ruth orchestrated that murder. This is Darryl Price, one of
the detectives who investigated Sharika's murder. He was convicted of
conspiracy to commit murder, but not the actual murder itself.
(36:51):
I don't even understand how that's possible. If you're convicted
of conspiracy to commit a murder that actually occurred, I
don't know how you could not found guilty of that
actual murder. Absolutely, I do not think he's guilty, and
I think it's a less carriage of justice. Here's Monique Young,
one of Kruth's longtime friends. It just hurts my heart,
(37:11):
you know what. I mean that he's had to deal
with this for so long, but he's such a strong
person that I think he's dealt with it very good.
And Dosha Hikey, the doctor who cared for Chancellor Lye
at the hospital. I mean he planned this. He was
supposed to kill her in the baby. You know, that's
what he wanted. It was them, heard them to be gone.
And that's just from someone who cares a lot about
(37:34):
Sander and Chancellor. You know, I was like, right, the
son of a bitch was what I wanted. I think
it's a Travis him and the guy with death penalty eligible,
and it would have been an appropriate sentence for him
in my view. Here's Tom Athey, who led the police
investigation into Sharika's murder. I mean, look what he did
through is on child. You really can't get beyond that.
When you make a choice to take two lives, can
(37:56):
you really change from that? And Valerie Brooks, one of
Sharika's best friends, Is that possible? I just don't know
that that can happen. I don't know that he's remorseful.
This is Van Brett Watkins, the hipman who's still consumed
by hatred for Kruth. What did you feel about Ray
Kruth now? And this is Sandra again. So what he did,
(38:20):
it deserves the harshest punishment. He deserves to be dead
for what he did to my daughter. But I forgive
him because I want to love my grandson unconditionally. And
I don't even want to see Ray Krruth go to hell.
(38:41):
I want him to come to repentance. I want to
forgive him so that I can move on and enjoy
the fruits of my labor and enjoy my life, because
if I'm sitting around and unforgiveness, it's like me drinking
(39:01):
poison and hoping he's gonna die. And that's not gonna
happen for now anyway. Chancellor Lee is here at Child
and Family Development, continuing to work toward new goals. Today
he's moved beyond the spoon and is working with occupational
(39:21):
therapist Meghan Davidson Palmer on a new challenge, cutting plato
with a plastic fork and knife. So you're just using
the fork to kind of hold its steady and then
you're cutting it from there. Okay, there you go. Wow good,
He grins yet again. And in a way, I think
(39:43):
this young man was what all of this was about.
Rake Ruth didn't want him, Van Brett Watkins tried to
kill him. Sharika Adams saved him, Sandra Adams raised him.
Countless others have supported and protected and nurtured him. He
was born from tragedy and has spent nearly every day
(40:03):
since in the embrace of a grandmother who will go
to any links to see that Chancellor Lee is loved.
It's really not even about the crime, because all of
us go through our death of a loved one sometimes
and when we focus on what we've lost, we don't
see what we have left. So today my focus is
(40:26):
on what I have left and all the joy that
has brought me, and that in some ways, if this
hadn't happened, I never would have stepped into the greatness
that God had for me, because it has shown me
a part of me that I didn't know lived in there.
(40:46):
I am bigger than I thought I was. I am
more faithful than I thought I was. I'm more loving
and compassionate than I ever thought I could be, And
for that I really have Ray caer Roof to thank.
(41:13):
With Autumn here again, Preparations are already underway for Chancellor
Lee's upcoming birthday. This time last year, I spent the
afternoon with him and Sandra and Charlotte's Freedom Park, just
across the street from the hospital where Chancellor was born.
It was like it was just a couple of years
ago we were bringing him home from the hospital. So
(41:34):
it's amazing. I'm just so thankful that I can associate
November sixteenth with the day my grandchild was born. Our
mutual boy, you have a birthday coming up? Yeah, do
you know when your birthday is? Charley Jake? November sixteenth?
(41:55):
That's right. I'm Scott Fowler and this podcast is produced
by Jeff Signer and Rachel Wise and Davin Coburn at
McClatchy Studios. Are we on boak right now? That's hot
and sometimes it's a midlife thing, so can we with
(42:18):
a good land? Good job? All right, job, I'm gonna
take okay, stop asking from chance I may not need
to come anymore. It's going to interview you find lots
(42:42):
more about this case at Charlotte Observer dot com slash
CARU and for just thirty dollars, subscribe now to a
full year of the Observer's award winning sports coverage at
Charlotte observer dot com slash sports pass. A special thank
you to Sherry Chisenhall, Robin Tomlin, Gary Schwab, Mike Persinger,
(43:02):
Gene Siegel, and Jonathan Forsyth for their support of this project.
And thank you to our nonprofit partners No More, the
National Coalition Against Domestic Violence Safe Alliance and the Children's
Defense Fund. Leave us a rating and a review on
Apple Podcast, and you can reach me directly at s
Fowler at Charlotte observer dot com. Thanks so much for listening.
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