0:00

A listener. Note this story contains

0:03

adult language and some graphic descriptions

0:05

of violence. Previously

0:12

on Ruth, the phone rang and

0:14

they were like, your daughter is at

0:17

the hospital. She's been shot.

0:19

It is miraculous that he survived

0:21

because Shrika was in very bad shape when

0:23

she came in. Finally, Ray comes

0:25

in with another woman. This

0:28

was very new at the time cellphone triangulation,

0:32

and we could put Ray's cell

0:34

phone where she was shot. Her bought

0:36

pressure was down, she was hypotensive. When

0:39

that happens, the baby doesn't get oxygen

0:41

and that causes brain damage. She

0:44

was existing, she was not living,

0:46

So I didn't have to

0:49

think long on making that decision.

0:52

Uh, And I knew, and I know

0:54

she knew that her son was

0:56

in good hands. Wildersville,

1:08

Tennessee, is due west of Charlotte on

1:10

Interstate forty, some eight hours

1:12

and five miles by car. To

1:15

get there, you wine past vague locations

1:17

like buck Snort and Sugar Tree, and

1:19

drive past the cornfields and the cracker barrels.

1:22

Halfway between Nashville and Memphis. It's

1:25

the sort of place you might stop for a few hours

1:27

of rest on a cross country drive every

1:30

so often. Civil War reenactors gathered

1:32

nearby to commemorate the Battle of Parker's

1:35

Crossroads, when Confederate General

1:37

Nathan Bedford Forest escaped captured

1:39

by Union soldiers.

1:44

But in n this stretch

1:46

of I forty had another brush with history

1:48

in an unassuming roadside motel that

1:51

was at the time a best Western.

1:54

This is where on December Carolina

1:57

panther Ray Caruth was found in the feet

2:00

total position in the trunk of a gray

2:02

Toyota camera, his pants around

2:04

his knees. Ray Caru, who

2:08

helped plan the got escape.

2:12

Was this not the admitted to ever?

2:15

Back then the original kings of comedy

2:17

couldn't resist and Steve Harvey

2:19

had a Charlotte audience rolling with laughter.

2:22

When you running from the law, you

2:24

want to get a passport, Ray

2:27

Reay to your das nash fel like

2:30

they ain't gonna spatch your black less and

2:32

nash Feld, the man

2:34

doing the spotting, turned out to be FBI

2:37

agent Mark Post. He was eating

2:39

oatmeal that Wednesday morning when a famous

2:41

fugitive practically showed up on his doorstep.

2:44

I saw a segment on Good Morning

2:46

America. Ray Kruth

2:49

fled the state, and to myself, I said,

2:51

I wonder where he's had it from

2:54

the Charlotte Observer in McClatchy Studios.

2:56

This is Caruth. I'm

2:59

Scott Fowler, and this is chapter four

3:01

the man Hunt. To

3:14

understand how Caruth arrived in Tennessee,

3:16

we need to take a step back. In

3:20

early December, family

3:22

and friends have been keeping vigil at Sharika

3:25

Adams's bedside. Sergeant

3:27

Tom Athey and his team of homicide detectives

3:29

have been racing to find out who shot her. Remember

3:32

there was a money and

3:34

tell us what happened. I would you to be honest with

3:36

us. Michael Kennedy,

3:39

the driver in the car that carried out the drive

3:41

by shooting, had already told authorities

3:43

his version of the story. He had also

3:46

painted a picture of Van Brett Watkins,

3:48

whom Kennedy knew only as William

3:50

the alias Watkins had used, Yeah,

3:53

he's my man. Arrived

3:55

at you. He was talking about will and he said wright with

3:57

you. He said, well, we need the movies.

4:00

He said, I'm gonna call you and I went out to

4:02

follow me down his role right here, and he was like,

4:04

we didn't already know what to do. Then,

4:07

in an interview with police, Caruth

4:09

had gone through his recent phone records and

4:11

conspicuously avoided one number

4:14

in particular. He's naming him off right and left,

4:16

and he gets down to the one that turns out

4:18

to be Van Brett Watkins, and

4:21

he just skips right over that, like as

4:23

quick as his finger could move. Police

4:25

traced it to the switch board of the Villager

4:28

Lodge, a budget motel out by Charlotte

4:30

Douglas International Airport. That's

4:32

where eight these teams sat staking

4:34

out the parking lot in November Thanksgiving

4:38

Day. We go out to the

4:40

place where Watkins is staying. Because

4:43

this thing goes through a switchboard, there's

4:45

no way to determine who to you switch

4:47

it too. But while we're out there, we

4:50

do see a pretty good sized guy walking

4:52

through the parking lot who turns out to

4:54

be Van Brett Watkins. After

4:57

shooting Sharika, Watkins says he

4:59

hit out in his hometown of New York for several

5:01

days, but as doctors tried

5:03

to save Sharika's life, the hitman

5:05

told me from prison that Carruth had grown

5:08

angry. This is don't call me

5:10

every day. She's still alive,

5:14

comeback and

5:16

called me any day, So fine,

5:21

and what he had later admit wasn't the smartest

5:23

move of his criminal career. Watkins

5:26

check back into that same Villager lodge

5:28

where he had stayed before the shooting. That

5:35

night, he shared the room with his girlfriend

5:37

and her infant son. In the middle

5:40

of the night, Watkins had ordered a pizza.

5:43

He had seen a police car and thought

5:45

cops were patrolling the motel, but also

5:47

that they didn't know he was in Room one eleven.

5:58

The pizza may have giving away watkins

6:01

location. At the very

6:03

least, it showed police that somebody in room

6:05

one eleven was wide awake. At two am,

6:08

Eighthy's team moved in. I just go knock

6:11

on my door and uh, you know, Watkins

6:13

comes to the door. He's pretty

6:15

pretty good size guy, and I think that his girlfriend,

6:17

wife or somebody, and there was a little baby and they're

6:19

a kid. Here's athey again. I

6:22

just tell him and I say hey, hey to bother

6:24

you man. I said, something come up. We'd really like to talk to

6:26

your mind coming down to police station with us. He said, hey, no

6:28

problems. He just gets in the car and rise

6:31

back down to the police stage withs. Just

6:33

like that. You'd be surprised

6:35

the number of people that will do that. I don't remember

6:37

him even questioning why we're even there. That

6:40

was watkins last real moment as

6:42

a freeman, and he knew it immediately.

6:47

I've

6:50

this and I want to get

6:53

away. Down

7:01

at the police station, the hitman wasn't

7:03

his calm. He told police

7:05

that his name was William Edward Watkins,

7:08

his dead older brother, to try to hide

7:10

his outstanding arrest warrants, and

7:12

in the interview room, Watkins pushed

7:14

back literally on eighties aggressive

7:17

questions. We tried to, uh, like

7:19

we do on the interview always, people find something that's really

7:21

gonna bother him, and I think we think we're

7:23

talking about you know, the girl that's in the room with him,

7:26

and that's his baby. You know, anything that's

7:28

gonna cause him. You know, hey,

7:30

look, you know wherever he got somebody to seeing this is what

7:32

you did. You don't tell the truth.

7:35

You know you're never gonna see these people again. I mean, we

7:37

just use enough to keep going because

7:39

at some point he jumps up

7:42

like he's gonna kick everybody's ass. Watkins

7:44

does. Yeah, Now, are you a big guy too?

7:47

I'm about two thirty. I'm gonna weight level

7:49

big guy, so kicking nobody's

7:51

ass in here. I'm afraid of you. Watkins refused

7:54

to cooperate at first, but police

7:56

still thought they had enough to arrest Karuth,

7:59

so as to tell at Price continued questioning

8:01

the hip man. Eighth, he drove to Kruth's

8:04

house. He knocked on the front door

8:06

at dawn. He comes to the door completely

8:09

naked. He's got another girl in there. He

8:11

hid an it was such a clothes on. He's got some of the

8:14

girl in there, and we I think at that point

8:16

we just tell me he's under rest, with both Kennedy

8:18

and Kruth and custody. Watkins

8:20

came clean. He could sense

8:23

this was gonna get turned on him and him along,

8:26

so he gave it up. And it really blew

8:28

my mind because I've been interviewed a lot of murder

8:30

suspects and it's rare to see

8:32

one completely flipped like that. This

8:35

is Price. But once he started

8:37

telling the story, since we had worked it for so

8:39

long, we knew that it was true because his

8:41

story fit everything that we knew.

8:44

And it wasn't that we were giving him information

8:47

and he was regurgitating it. He was

8:49

actually telling us the story from the

8:51

movie Theater all the way down to the

8:53

shooting, and then what had happened after

8:55

shooting. Soon

9:01

Carruth, Watkins, Kennedy

9:04

and Kennedy's friend Stanley Abraham were

9:06

all under arrest. Had

9:08

summer all with John Madden and John Let's

9:10

talk about the troubled Carolina Panthers.

9:12

First news of Karuth's arrest barreled

9:14

through the Panther's locker room and beyond

9:17

man with disbelief, like

9:21

what what what are you talking to? Ray? You

9:23

know this is Mike Mentor, Karuth's

9:26

former teammate on the Panthers. I

9:28

think basically what people think is okay,

9:31

nothing's gonna happen now. It is no way

9:34

that can be right. With the help of

9:36

his family, local bail bondsman,

9:38

and one thousand dollars

9:40

of his own cash, Karuth was able

9:42

to post a three million dollar bail

9:45

on December six. It's spent

9:47

eleven nights in jail. Of

9:49

the four men, Karuth was the only

9:52

one who bonded out. That

9:54

bond had several stipulations. Karuth

9:56

could not leave Mecklenburg County, and

9:59

he had to surrender her to police. If

10:01

Sharika or Chancellor died. She

10:04

was existing, she was not living,

10:06

and so we made really

10:08

I made the decision to take her

10:10

off of life support. At twelve

10:13

pm on December fourteenth, n Sharika

10:17

passed away. Within hours,

10:19

Caruth was gone. Kruth

10:26

never had a shortage of women who wanted to be nearby.

10:29

The entire time Sharika was pregnant

10:31

with their son, he dated at least one

10:33

or two other women. He also had

10:35

numerous platonic female friends. One

10:38

of those was Wendy Cole, who owned a Charlotte

10:40

hair salon at the time. She was in

10:42

her late twenties and she knew Caruth's

10:45

mother and his cousin too. Cole

10:47

sometimes fed Caruth's dog when he was out

10:49

of town for away games. At

10:51

the time, Cole was planning a trip to California.

10:54

Caruth, who was from Sacramento, knew

10:56

it. Soon after Sharika's death,

10:58

he begged Cold to take him with her. Ultimately

11:01

she agreed because he panicked.

11:04

I mean, when here's what

11:06

happened. This is David Rudolph, who was

11:08

Caruth's lead attorney during his murder

11:11

trial. Caruth authorized him to speak

11:13

with me for this project. Sharik Adams

11:15

died and he got a call from George

11:18

Horn and you know, he

11:20

was out on bond at the time. And

11:22

George said, you know, you need to turn yourself in.

11:25

And Ray said, what's going to happen

11:28

when I turned myself in? What you know, will they continue

11:30

the bond? And George said, no,

11:33

they're not. You're not going to continue the bond.

11:36

You know, they're probably gonna just lock you up. Uh.

11:39

And Ray panicked, pure

11:41

and simple and Uh,

11:44

I don't think he had a plan particularly, I

11:46

don't know that he was going anywhere in particular.

11:49

Uh. And you know, it's

11:53

it's another example. I guess of his flight

11:57

reflects kicking in and

11:59

the does of interviews I've done over the past

12:01

year that characterization of Karuth

12:03

has come up a lot. Rudolph told

12:06

me that Kruth now admits he was there

12:08

when Sharika was shot that had

12:10

never been public knowledge before. Karuth

12:13

maintains that Sharika's murder was a retaliatory

12:16

hit by Watkins due to Karuth

12:18

going back on his word to finance

12:20

a major drug deal. Karuth

12:22

declined invitations to speak with me on

12:24

the record for this story, but through

12:26

his attorney, Kruth said he fled that

12:29

night too, leaving the mother of his

12:31

unborn son to the mercy of

12:33

a vengeful killer. My reaction

12:36

to Ray fleeing to Tennessee

12:38

with yet another girl friend

12:41

was just another very

12:44

big display of his cowardice.

12:46

This is Sandra Adams, Sharika's

12:48

mother, because he had

12:51

been a coward through all of

12:53

it, and I think that maybe

12:56

how he keeps his conscious clear

12:58

because he didn't actually pull of the trigger. He

13:00

paid somebody to do it, so when

13:02

it was come time to take the punishment,

13:05

he ran out and didn't show up for that. So

13:08

I just think it spells out in

13:10

very capital letters his

13:12

disposition. Around ten pm

13:15

on the night Sharika died, Carew threw

13:17

on baggy black jeans, a T shirt,

13:20

and a gray and black leather jacket and

13:22

climbed into the trunk of that Toyota

13:24

Cameron. It was messy back

13:26

there because the two were leaving in a hurry.

13:29

There were no suitcases, just clothes

13:31

stuffed around the edges, along with a few

13:33

energy bars and sports strinths and

13:36

a small purse holding almost four thousand

13:38

dollars in cash. She dies

13:41

in Uh, we'll go back

13:43

to try to lock him up, and of course he's uh, he's

13:45

gone. This is Athey again. You

13:47

know, people say, well, why didn't you watch him? I said, We've

13:49

got a hundred thousand of things going on in the city. We don't

13:51

have resources sit and watch one guy because

13:53

of who he is. I mean, he's not gonna

13:56

vanish from the face of the earth yet

13:58

he had, at least for the moment.

14:05

Cole drove west on I forty through the

14:07

night. Karruth occasionally talked to

14:09

her on his cell phone. By eight am,

14:12

December, Cole was exhausted.

14:15

She checked into room one forty nine of the Best

14:17

Western in Wildersville. She

14:19

needed to rest and to think. Kruth

14:23

stayed in the trunk. Cole

14:26

cared about Karuth and his family, but there were limits,

14:29

and aiding and abetting a fugitive wanted for

14:31

murder across that line. Inside

14:34

the hotel room, Cole called Karuth's mother,

14:36

the Audrey, to tell her where they were. The

14:40

Audrey Karuth was relieved to hear from Cole.

14:42

She had been speaking with various news outlets

14:44

that morning, telling them, quote, he's

14:47

scared and people have to know that

14:50

he doesn't know what's going to happen to him. She

14:52

wasn't the only one relieved to hear Karuth

14:55

was okay. Detective Rice and I

14:57

had gone over and talked with the bell bondsman

15:00

because they stood to lose a lot of money. I

15:02

can't remember the exact amount of only there was a lot

15:05

of money for a bail bonds. This is price

15:07

again. So they were working every

15:09

bit as hard as we were on trying to locate

15:12

Ray. And so the bail

15:14

bondsman was the ones actually contacted us

15:16

and said there at this hotel. They were

15:18

able to give us the location and at

15:20

that point, you know, I think the FBI

15:22

were on scene within a couple of hours, which

15:25

is amazing because if we ever call them for something, it's

15:27

like they gotta have ops plans, and we're looking

15:29

at eight hours. But

15:34

in fact, it was the Audrey who tipped

15:36

off the bail bondsman. She was worried

15:38

her son could be killed by police if the man

15:40

hunt stretched on. Kruth

15:42

was now five hundred miles away. Bondsman

15:45

couldn't make that drive fast enough, and

15:47

neither could Charlotte police. I know, Detective

15:50

Rice and I had tried to get the

15:52

department to helicopter US up

15:54

to that location. UH

15:56

then instead elected to utilize

15:58

the FBI and that re en to go do the arrest.

16:01

The FBI office in Charlotte was notified

16:04

someone they're called the bureaus Jackson, Tennessee

16:07

Field office and Mark Post. I

16:10

went into work normal day,

16:13

so to speak, and then UH. At

16:15

the time, I was a supervisor with the

16:17

five agents and

16:19

the office, so I was

16:21

going in to do the paperwork and the

16:24

normal things that a supervisor

16:27

goes every day, other than catching

16:29

the news that morning. Post had no idea

16:32

who the football player even was, but

16:34

that didn't matter. Now Karuth had become

16:36

a fugitive, which Post knew all about,

16:39

and the FBI agent's routine day was

16:41

about to get a lot less ordinary. Technically,

16:46

Karuth was on an unlawful flight to

16:48

avoid prosecution. Once he had

16:51

crossed state lines, the manhunt

16:53

became a federal matter. I

16:55

received a call from the FBI office

16:58

and they had developed information and that he

17:01

was in a motel in

17:04

Wildersville, Tennessee, which

17:07

is about five miles from our

17:10

satellite office. They gave

17:12

me a description of the car and

17:14

that he was traveling with lighty named Whendy Cole

17:17

and I immediately got the agents together

17:20

and told him what the situation was.

17:23

One of the agents got a picture of Raker Ruth

17:26

off the internet and we

17:28

were going to go out to the hotel. And

17:30

with that they were off. Five

17:32

FBI agents dressed in civilian

17:35

clothes in three cars, no

17:37

sirens and no warning. No,

17:40

this was very blow key. We didn't

17:42

want anybody to know that we were coming. So

17:45

we got close to the the exit

17:48

and you can see the motel, which is

17:50

really the only motel the best Western

17:52

at the time. They're in Tennessee. Post

17:55

and I made that same drive together arriving

17:57

at what's now in America's best value

18:00

in in suites. Here is our

18:03

path of travel, going eastbound in

18:06

a procession, three vehicles, new

18:08

ownership aside. It's the exact same

18:10

building off to your right as you drive east

18:12

on I forty, clearly visible atop

18:15

a little hill. You can actually catch

18:17

a glimpse of Room one as you take

18:19

the exit ramp nearby. If you know where

18:22

to look and what you're looking at, and

18:24

you break from the trees, you

18:27

get a clear view of the hotel

18:29

rooms. And this is where we

18:31

first spotted the camera

18:34

backed in to room. Room

18:39

is where the man hunt came to an end. That's

18:42

them. They backed in case

18:44

local law enforcement came in and saw the license.

18:47

The adrenaline kicked in. I thought, oh

18:49

my god, he is here. Going

18:53

directly to the room seemed risky. From

18:56

what he had been told. Coal was a relatively

18:58

innocent bystander with a way

19:00

to know if Kruth was armed. Post wanted

19:02

to control the situation and remove Coal

19:05

from harm's away. I went to the office

19:07

with another agent to the best

19:09

questern. The other cars went

19:12

up onto the back side, overlooking

19:15

the vehicle, keeping an eye on it. So

19:18

we went into the hotel spoke

19:21

to the manager. There was a lady there at the

19:23

desk and we asked about

19:26

the camera. Told him that we had

19:28

a warrant for the rest

19:30

of an individual we

19:32

thought was staying with

19:34

her. So I

19:36

asked her to call

19:39

the room and tell

19:42

Ms Cole there's a mechanical

19:44

issue and have her come and

19:46

give her a key to change works. She

19:49

made the call. Ruth's accomplice

19:52

walked about fifty yards across the parking

19:54

lot to pick up the new key, but in

19:56

the office she found the FBI,

19:59

and we immediately identified ourselves

20:01

and told her that we were looking for Ray Kruth.

20:04

And I asked her if he was in the room, and

20:06

she said no. I

20:08

said, can we searched the room? She said

20:11

yes, So we searched the

20:13

room and there was no Gradkreuth. Cole

20:16

didn't exactly deny that Kruth was there.

20:18

She didn't try to send the FBI away, but

20:21

she didn't really answer their questions either.

20:23

I asked her if Ray Kruth

20:26

was with her, She said no. I

20:28

said, where's he at? Said, well,

20:31

I'm not sure, but he's around here. Different

20:33

answers every time, and very big.

20:36

She told me that she was on her way to

20:39

uh, California for a cosmetic

20:42

school. She was just very polite

20:44

and very nice, but very young and naive

20:47

and immature. I thought, sooner

20:49

or later, she's gonna tell me. POST thought

20:51

Karuth might have walked someplace to buy food. He

20:54

had no car and no obvious way to leave,

20:56

so the FBI decided they just wait there

20:59

in room one fifty, right next door.

21:02

I told her that we were not leaving, and

21:04

then we're checking into the room next to her. She

21:07

didn't say anything after

21:09

about twenty minutes. I

21:11

went down and I sat down on the side of the bed and

21:13

I said, do you know where he is? Don't

21:15

you? And she looked at the

21:17

keys and I didn't

21:19

pick up on it the first time. I

21:22

said, where is he when? And

21:24

she looked at the keys again. He's

21:27

in the trunk, an't me? And she looked

21:29

at me and she says, I don't want you to hurt him. I

21:31

said, we're not going to hurt him. I said,

21:34

I won't tell him that you told me because

21:36

I'm the one that figured it out. She said,

21:38

okay. The

21:44

camera was parked right here, backed

21:47

in to the edge of this walk

21:49

away and room

21:53

is where Wendy Cole had checked

21:55

into at the one story motel.

21:58

Each rooms door opens direct lee into

22:00

the parking lot, so when the FBI

22:03

left room, Karuth

22:05

was physically no more than two steps away,

22:08

curled up in the fetal position inside

22:10

the trunk of her camera. It

22:13

was about six pm that December

22:15

night. When agents approached the car. It

22:18

was dark except for the hotel's lights,

22:20

and cold enough to be uncomfortable. Karuth

22:23

had been stuffed in the trunk for almost twenty

22:25

one hour straight. The first thing

22:27

that came to my mind and I was most concerned

22:30

about, was if he does have

22:32

a weapon, he's going to commit

22:34

suicide because

22:37

of the circumstances. Are riding

22:39

in a trunk, desperate to

22:41

get out, He's gonna be placed under

22:43

he arrest, and his whole

22:46

career in life has taken a turn for

22:48

the worst. And I told her

22:51

this is what we're gonna do. I want you to tell

22:53

Ray that we know that he's in there and

22:55

we're not gonna hurt him. She did that,

22:58

then stepped aside. One agent

23:00

stood on either side of the camera with guns

23:03

drawn, ready to shoot Kruth

23:05

if necessary. A third

23:07

agent climbed down under the trunk, reaching

23:09

up with the key to undo the luck. I

23:12

said, Ray, I'm with the FBI and

23:14

I have agents surrounded the car. I

23:17

want you to cooperate with me and

23:19

do what I say. I said, do you have any

23:21

weapons now? I said, as

23:24

soon as we popped the trunk just enough,

23:26

the first thing I want to see is those

23:29

hands come up. Do you understand me? Yes,

23:32

sir, Post gave a queue to

23:34

the agent on the ground. The agent popped

23:36

it up just enough and his hands

23:38

came right out. I mean I

23:41

was surprised how fast. To a certain degree,

23:43

He's laying on his side in a field position.

23:46

Source good because of all

23:48

the baggage. There was a much room for him

23:50

in there at all. So we

23:53

helped him up, handcuffed him and

23:56

his pants were down to his knees, and

24:00

pulled his pants up, got him out of the trunk.

24:03

We brought everything out that was in the

24:05

trunk. There was two

24:08

sport drink bolls to Gatorade

24:10

type. One was four urine, one

24:12

was half full. There was a

24:14

number of power bars and candy

24:17

bar rappers. Murray

24:19

told us that he had dollars

24:21

cash in there, which we found

24:24

in a small ladies handbag type.

24:27

Who put one cole in a car and we drove

24:30

her car, telling him that we were

24:32

going to transport him to our office.

24:39

Caruth had trouble standing, but

24:42

as the athlete tried to get the blood flowing to

24:44

his legs again, Post had another

24:46

thought. What if Kruth runs.

24:49

Karuth was already a metaphorical runner,

24:52

often choosing flight over fight,

24:55

but he was also a literal runner with speed

24:57

that helped get him to the NFL. If Karuth

25:00

rand would middle aged FBI agents chase

25:02

a year old with a four three forty

25:04

yard dash. If adrenaline took

25:06

over, would one of them shoot him? Could

25:09

the Audrey Caruth have had a point For a

25:11

while, I thought this guy's tight

25:13

end or a wide receiver. He could run, and

25:16

so that was a little concern

25:19

that I had prior to getting him in the vehicle,

25:22

that he'd take off. Thankfully

25:24

for everyone, after fleeing the

25:26

scene of Sharika's shooting, he never stopped

25:29

his car. He was scared

25:31

and he took off misleading police

25:34

is going through these phone numbers and he

25:36

gets down to the one that turns out to be

25:38

band Brett Watkins, and he just skips

25:41

right over that panicking again. After

25:43

Sharika's death, My reaction to ray

25:45

fleeing was just another big

25:48

display of his cowardice. Been spending

25:50

his last day as a free man in the darkness

25:53

and the cold, undressed and surrounded

25:55

by bottles of his own urine, in a space

25:57

smaller than a prison self. It's

26:00

the example I guess of his flight

26:02

reflects kicking in Kruth

26:04

was done running. He sure

26:06

was very subdued and very

26:09

meek and mild, no

26:12

cocky nous whatsoever. He

26:14

was quiet, yes, sir, no, sir. Agents

26:17

drove Caruth to the FBI office

26:19

in Jackson. There, they questioned

26:21

him, They let him call his mother and

26:23

tell her he was okay. When Caruth

26:26

asked for a Bible, they tracked one down.

26:28

When he said he was hungry, posts sent

26:30

someone out for a chicken sandwich and fries.

26:33

I mean those agents who were very focused

26:36

and took the initiative rather

26:38

than just accepting the fact that

26:40

he's not in the car. Who's not in the room,

26:43

So I guess he's not here, Let's

26:46

go home. I think this is the first

26:48

time I've ever found anybody in the trunk. Caruth

26:54

spent that night in jail in Tennessee after

26:57

doing a purp walk in front of the media.

27:00

All ended here for late in

27:02

the parking lot of it. That's Western Motel

27:04

in Wildersville, Tennessee. Brand you

27:06

do it. Soon he was extradited

27:09

and U. S. Marshalls drove him five miles

27:11

back to Charlotte, where he became a national

27:14

punchline. Yeah. I had to be packing shot,

27:16

going I'm no good way on this mothering in this trunk.

27:19

That little mother is in the trunk.

27:22

Here's comedian Steve Harvey again, I

27:24

don't need to get mad and shot

27:27

nobody. The NFL

27:29

suspended Kruth indefinitely. Carolina

27:32

Panther's owner Jerry Richardson released

27:34

a statement of his own, cutting all ties

27:37

with the former number one draft pick. Caruth

27:39

had still been on the Panthers roster until

27:41

he was found in Tennessee. Richardson's

27:44

statement said quote, our decision

27:47

was based on Ray's actions over the last

27:49

forty eight hours, and it is not a statement

27:51

about the case. Initially, you don't

27:53

want to believe it something that horrific, in

27:55

that calculated You're just thinking, I

27:57

can't my teammate could not have done that, and gon

28:00

to be loyal to him. This is Steve Berlin, Caruth's

28:03

primary quarterback on the Panthers. But as

28:05

the facts started coming out, in reality hit

28:07

all of us that this is not looking good.

28:09

Ray and I remember we were talking about a locker

28:12

whom we could have done and what we you know,

28:14

were there any signs that any of this stuff

28:16

was going through his mind? And he was

28:18

so to himself that it was really hard to get a read

28:21

on what he was thinking. Caruth's only public

28:23

comment on the man hunt came back in two thousand

28:25

one. He told C N N S I

28:27

quote people who have had situations

28:30

being scared and being in the position

28:32

where you really feel like you don't have any hope would

28:35

understand. Well, man, maybe he really did

28:37

need to clear his head. Cole

28:40

was charged with harboring a fugitive, but

28:42

the charge was dropped six months later.

28:45

Posts still can't drive past Parker's Crossroads

28:48

without glancing up at the motel. I travel

28:50

life forward, he frequently right

28:52

there. I see that facing the interstate.

28:56

It just clicks. I'll never forget

28:58

seeing that camera and saying he's

29:00

back in, he's hiding the license

29:02

plate. That's

29:06

go ahead and be seated for a second. Three

29:08

days after Kruth was found in a trunk, Sharika

29:11

was buried on a clear morning in South

29:14

Charlotte. Waves of people filled

29:16

the sanctuary of the Victory Christian Center

29:18

Mega Church. I was asked to speak,

29:20

but I knew at that I was I

29:22

didn't have the ability to. This is Valerie

29:25

Brooks, one of Sharika's closest

29:27

friends. There were over a thousand people

29:29

at our funeral. It was huge. Sharika

29:32

made a huge impact. We talked

29:34

about how important It is

29:36

for us to walk in love. Isn't

29:38

that right? Even even towards our

29:41

enemies? And his eulogy, Pastor

29:44

Robin Gould acknowledged how she died.

29:46

We need a higher value of life, he said,

29:49

if you can blow away a pregnant woman. By

29:52

then, Sharika's killing had attracted such

29:54

widespread attention there was no way

29:57

to avoid the elephant in the room, or

29:59

the dozens of them. I remember resenting

30:02

all the media. I remember

30:04

that they were everywhere. This is Sonia

30:07

Melton, another of Sharika's close

30:09

friends. They were especially

30:11

right at the entrance of the church,

30:14

really heavily right there. So

30:16

it was packed. It was emotional. A

30:19

smaller service was held later that day

30:21

at the nearby Sunset Memory Gardens.

30:24

There, Sharika's silver casket

30:27

was lowered into the ground. Mourners

30:30

released twenty four purple balloons.

30:33

Each one carried a photograph of

30:35

her. Sandra

30:37

and Sharika's father, Jeff Mooney, released

30:40

a joint statement to the media saying,

30:42

quote, we cannot help but feel

30:45

glad that in the midst of our unspeakable

30:47

grief, God has given us Chancellor

30:49

as a beacon of hope. We look

30:52

forward to providing him with the love, affection,

30:55

guidance, and nurturing that will help

30:57

him grow into a man of which his mother will

30:59

be out. On

31:02

December thirty one, thirteen

31:05

days after his mother's funeral, Chancellor

31:08

Lee was released from the hospital into Sandra's

31:10

care. Dosha Hickey, the doctor

31:13

who had cared for him in the hospital, had

31:15

her suspicions proven correct. Chancellor

31:18

Lee was soon diagnosed with cerebral palsy,

31:21

leaving him with significant mobility and

31:23

speech issues. He also had major

31:25

intellectual disabilities due to the

31:27

irreversible brain damage he suffered

31:30

the night of his birth. Well what you want,

31:32

you don't We don't really have a weight, but he was over five

31:34

pounds when he went home. Hickey

31:36

was there to see him off and to make sure

31:39

that happened away from the TV cameras.

31:41

I still remember that day, and we snuck him out the

31:43

back door because we didn't tell the media, and they didn't

31:45

tell him till he was already home

31:47

and they said he's been released today. We

31:51

went out for the emergency room. Less

31:54

than two weeks after burying her daughter, Sandra,

31:57

at forty two years old, had become

31:59

the price merry caretaker for her grandson

32:02

as she braced for life once more as a single

32:05

guardian. A separate struggle was taking

32:07

shape, led by someone else who had

32:09

been there at Sharika's funeral, veteran

32:11

Charlotte attorney, Gentry Cardell.

32:14

I just wanted to get to know the person

32:17

about whom evidence in

32:19

the case I

32:21

felt gone. Caruth

32:23

had become the first active NFL

32:25

player ever to be charged with murder,

32:28

and Cardell was the lead prosecutor

32:30

for Kruth's upcoming trial. Cardell

32:33

had already sent eight men to

32:35

death row. He wanted Kruth

32:38

to be number nine. I'm

32:41

Scott Fowler and this podcast is produced

32:44

by Jeff Signer and Rachel Wise and

32:46

Davin Coburn at McClatchy Studios. Find

32:49

lots more about this case at Charlotte Observer

32:51

dot com slash Caruth and

32:53

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32:55

now to a full year of The Observer's award

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winning sports coverage at Charlotte

33:00

Observer dot com slash sports

33:02

Pass. In chapter

33:04

five, Caruth goes on trial.

33:10

In my mind, there was no doubt that this was

33:12

the man that pulled the trigger. Now the jury

33:15

is just sort of saying, Okay, do I believe

33:17

Ray carew and the criminals turn on themselves.

33:20

That's the bitch I was talking about. Like Carue,

33:22

the judge found our biggest deputy

33:25

he could find to sit between

33:27

him and Watkins. I'm two hundred

33:29

and eighty six pounds. I would rip

33:31

you like a rag doll.