0:00

A listener. Note this story contains

0:03

adult language and some graphic descriptions

0:05

of violence. Previously

0:11

on Kruth, the defendant Ray Lamar

0:14

Kruth is guilty of

0:16

conspiracy to commit murder, but

0:18

not guilty of the first three. Moray

0:21

is walking out of prison in October. And

0:23

you know that was a death penalty case. In

0:26

a lot of ways, we sort of won that case.

0:28

If what they're saying is that because

0:31

Watkins took the plea and Caruth

0:33

refused to take it, they made their decision

0:36

based on some subjective weighing

0:38

process. They did not follow the

0:41

law whether he got nineteen years

0:43

like he did, or if he would have gotten closer

0:45

to forty years like Van Brett did. Rica

0:48

still d it and is not bringing

0:50

her back. You could be having a bad day

0:52

in here if you're lucky enough to be working with

0:54

Lee. Never mind, always

0:56

say he's in the smile ministry. You

0:59

know he's already and he walking in his call

1:01

and he he's happy.

1:09

So Van Brett, Watkins and

1:11

I, since I've met with him, have become

1:14

correspondence. He

1:16

has written me since I have met with him in

1:18

prison for that one three hour plus

1:20

interview, I'd say at least

1:24

fifteen times, so today

1:27

just now opening this, But this is the first time I've

1:29

actually received a card from him, so

1:32

I can tell it's a card from the thickness of

1:34

the envelope. He

1:38

always calls himself Monsieur Monsieur

1:41

van Brett. Pierre Watkins is how

1:43

he always puts himself on the

1:45

return address, and he says, sir

1:48

and close, please find a card to

1:51

Miss Sandra Adams. You

1:53

may read it and then forward it to her,

1:56

and he signs it New York. That

1:58

was his nickname, all right, So

2:01

the card starts peace,

2:03

Ms Adams and Chancellor. I

2:05

read the last lie dumber

2:08

and dumber recently did with Mr

2:11

Scott Fowler. He refers to Crew sometimes

2:13

as dumb and dumber or dumber and dumber. He's

2:16

done this for many of these fifteen

2:18

letters. Uh, and you don't believe

2:20

that b s either. So thank you for defending

2:22

the God's honest truth. I told oh

2:24

so many years ago. Tell the

2:27

world the absolute truth all

2:29

the things I've done. I don't

2:31

care if I make it to two thousand, forty

2:33

or forty three or forty six. This is

2:35

what I am now after fifty seven years.

2:38

What I care about that. Ala forgives

2:40

my lifetime of major and minor sins

2:43

that he allows me to go to heaven and

2:45

not to let me have to eat the nasty foods

2:47

and n C D O C DPS

2:50

mess halls. I'll take the good

2:52

or bad decision from Olah without crying

2:54

and lying like dumbest a

2:57

k. A. Ray Wiggins p

3:00

us. As you see, zebra

3:03

never sheds its stripes, nor

3:05

does a leopard lose its spots. He's

3:09

still unrepentive. That's a

3:11

danger to you and Chancellor

3:16

From the Charlotte Observer in McClatchy Studios,

3:19

this is Caruth. I'm

3:21

Scott Fowler, and this is chapter seven

3:24

Forgiveness. Here

3:37

at Child and Family Development in South Charlotte,

3:40

Chancellor Lee is hard at work doing things

3:42

he was never supposed to do from

3:46

his room into the kitchen. Yeah.

3:50

Why

3:53

Amy Sturkey has been the teenager's physical

3:55

therapist for fourteen years now. It's

3:58

still I've onlie il s

4:00

the last year. Got so that I will walk

4:02

beside him and not hold on to

4:04

him, that I can walk and go down the hall.

4:06

Now I do have him in the corner of my eye even

4:08

now as I go across the room, I have my corner

4:11

of my eye, but I can leave

4:13

you got this, and I can walk over and pat

4:15

you on the shoulder and come back and feel like we're still

4:18

gonna be there and be safe. Chancellor Lee

4:20

is almost nineteen. Doctors

4:22

predicted he might never walk, and progress

4:25

has been slow, but it has been

4:27

progress. We started off on

4:29

the treadmill where he could hold on and

4:31

I can control the speed, and

4:34

that way, at point three miles per

4:36

hour he could get

4:38

a heel toe which treadmill start

4:40

in the gym at point five, so slower

4:42

than the standard treadmill at the gym.

4:45

Then it was two hands held, so I'm not

4:47

as steady with my hands, and now

4:49

we've progressed to go into one hand held. And that's what probably

4:51

in the last six months we've been working the hardest on is

4:54

trying to get that heel toe walk. This transition

4:56

into adulthood is a crucial time for

4:58

anyone living was so terrible palsy,

5:01

and Chancellor Lee is surpassing his physical

5:03

goals at child and family development. But

5:06

Sturkey admits the question of how reliant

5:08

Chancellor Lee will be on Sandra in the future

5:11

does linger again, he's a marginal

5:13

community ambulator. The goal would be, I

5:15

think he's starting some in the home to walk on his

5:17

own, but we want him to be able to walk now

5:20

out in the water community. I think is a step

5:22

in the future, but for now, our goal would

5:24

be that he could walk in the home independently

5:27

and be safe, that that she doesn't

5:29

have to be next to him everywhere he goes in

5:31

the house. And if he decides he wants to get up and get the remote,

5:33

because now he's always rushing

5:36

me because if I'm getting too

5:38

slow, he's already and

5:43

then I hear him, I'm like, I'm coming, Lee.

5:45

Can you imagine as a team though, it's

5:47

an appropriate independence for him to have, for

5:49

him to be able to go from me sometimes across

5:52

the room for whatever it is he wants

5:54

and come back okay safely. In

5:58

John Embreyson HBO Real Sports

6:00

piece in which Bryant Gumbel interviewed

6:02

Sandra and Chancellor Lee. At

6:05

the time, Embury was the head coach at

6:07

the University of Colorado, it had

6:09

been nearly twenty years since he had helped to successfully

6:12

recruit Karuth. Back when Embury

6:14

was an assistant with the Buffaloes. Shortly

6:17

after midnight, with Watkins and his accomplices

6:19

waiting in a nearby car, Caruth

6:22

and Adams left his house in separate

6:24

cars to supposedly spend the night

6:26

at her place. After I got to the hospital,

6:28

I started Colin Ray because I'm thinking, oh, my

6:30

gosh, he didn't notice he's been shot. Did

6:32

you really think you would be that easy and you'd get

6:35

away with My fault is that

6:37

I didn't do like a hit mass should do, which

6:39

is kill everybody on the scene.

6:42

The coach grew close to Kruth as the wide

6:44

receiver rose to All American status,

6:47

and that kept in contact after Kruth was

6:49

drafted by the Carolina Panthers. Then

6:51

the receiver got arrested, tried,

6:54

and sent to prison for conspiring

6:56

to murder Sharika. I mean, you're watching

6:58

all this and you're going what is

7:00

going on? And I just remember,

7:03

as you know, thinking to myself, how could

7:05

this happen? Like what

7:07

would drive someone to do this?

7:10

And then what would drive him to do something

7:12

like this? Like I just don't get

7:14

it. I still don't get it. Embury also wasn't

7:16

sure what to do about it, but

7:18

by twelve, he had started a nonprofit

7:21

called Buffs for Life that supported

7:24

former Colorado athletes through personal

7:26

hardships. Buffal Life an

7:28

organization a group of men who

7:31

are buffaloes. Remember those cold

7:33

practices, remember the

7:35

the agony of being a buffalo, and

7:37

then also the joys of being a buffalo.

7:40

His family looking after after those

7:42

who need it

7:45

is the foundation of what

7:47

Bluff of Life is. Sandra

7:50

and Chancellor Lee had no connection to Colorado

7:52

except for the fact that a former Colorado's

7:55

star had impacted their lives so horrifically.

7:57

You know, I'd always kind of wonder what it

8:00

happened with Sandra and Lee, you know, having

8:02

had the relationship with Ray and familiarity

8:05

with all of that, and uh, we're able

8:07

to get ahold of her, and we reached out to her, and

8:09

then we're able to fly out for that

8:12

very first tournament. Buffs

8:14

for Life flew Sandra and her grandson out to

8:16

Colorado for the organization's first

8:18

charity golf tournament. When everyone

8:21

met her and met Lee, it was like, I

8:24

mean, everyone just for a bear, like a

8:26

term, just fell in love just being around

8:28

them and seeing her and

8:31

her heart and then seeing the courage

8:33

and the fight and the drive that Lee has.

8:35

It was incredible having

8:38

a grandchild that's born disabled. People

8:40

are saying, don't even try to do anything with

8:42

him. He's not gonna be one. He's been

8:44

going to walk and all these things

8:46

that he's never gonna do, and she never

8:49

quit on them, and she didn't

8:51

blink. Buss for Life has raised

8:53

more than one sixty thousand dollars

8:56

for the adams Is from donors all

8:58

over the world. They don't nations have

9:00

helped cover the cost of Chancellor Lee's medical

9:02

care and living expenses. They

9:09

raised enough money so that in Sandra

9:12

and her grandson were able to move into

9:14

a new house better suited for the disabled.

9:17

Inside there are framed photos everywhere

9:20

of Chancellor Lee as an infant and of

9:22

Sandra wrapping her arms around him,

9:24

and just inside the front door one of Sharika's

9:27

showing off her pregnant belly, smiling

9:29

about that future that seemed full of

9:31

limitless possibility. In

9:35

the new home, both of their bedrooms are on the first

9:37

floor, and an electric stairlift

9:39

helps Chancellor Lee get to the second floor.

9:43

Outside the front door is a welcome math that

9:45

says whether you come to visit

9:47

or just to rest. When you enter our

9:49

home, may you be blessed. Embury

9:52

told me that by getting to know the family he

9:54

has been I wish everybody could meet

9:56

her and really just sit down

9:58

and talk with her. We because it's

10:01

easy for people to say, well, I know I would

10:03

do this, I would do that if this ever had that

10:05

ever happened, And here's someone in the middle

10:08

of what could be your worst nightmare

10:10

as a parent. It truly

10:13

does force you to look at yourself

10:15

and really, at

10:18

least for me, a question one. I

10:20

know I'm a better person for the

10:23

times I've been able to talk with her and just be

10:25

around and see it like she never says.

10:28

I've never once heard her say

10:30

why me not one

10:33

time? Money is often

10:35

tight for the adams Is. For nearly two

10:37

decades, Sandra has spent her days

10:39

as Chancellor Le's full time caregiver.

10:42

After Kruth and the other three conspirators

10:45

were convicted of criminal charges related

10:47

to Sharika's killing, Sandra filed

10:49

a civil wrongful death lawsuit

10:51

against the four men. Soon a

10:54

Mecklenburg Superior Court judge awarded

10:56

her nearly six million dollars

10:58

in damages, but the four men

11:00

had been sentenced to combine seventy

11:02

five years in prison. Kruth

11:05

had been declared indigent. To

11:07

this day, the only money Saundra

11:09

says she's received from Kruth was

11:11

a single ten thousand dollar payment as

11:13

lawyers divvied up Kruth's NFL retirement

11:16

benefits. That's all we have gotten

11:19

from Ray Caruth. Ever, and

11:22

you know, the lawyers have to be paid,

11:25

so I didn't even get to keep all

11:27

of the ten thousand. So I'm

11:29

really hoping he can get out and

11:31

uh get a book deal

11:34

or movie deal or something that

11:36

will pay chancell of what he's due,

11:39

because I do intend to

11:41

keep that active. Maybe he would

11:43

have to at least have some financial accountability

11:46

because I've had to make

11:49

innumerable sacrifices in my

11:51

life to take care of my

11:53

grandson, and I don't feel

11:55

ashamed in any way that it

11:58

should be compensated. Embury's

12:00

role as the primary fundraiser for the Adams

12:02

Is is somewhat ironic. He's long

12:05

coached for teams that play against Carolina

12:07

and has no Charlotte connection at all. The

12:10

Panthers, of course, are Caruth's former

12:12

team. They distanced themselves

12:15

from him. Long ago, and largely

12:17

did the same with Sandra and Chancellor

12:19

Lee. There's no really

12:22

hard feelings between

12:24

me and the Panthers. I think they did

12:26

what they should have done

12:28

from a business perspective, this

12:31

was not the Panthers that committed

12:33

the crime. This is Ray car Rude. He's on

12:36

his own. They made the best business

12:38

decision for the team.

12:40

A Panthers spokesman declined to comment on

12:42

the record for this project, but earlier

12:45

this year, Jerry Richardson, the team's

12:47

founding owner, sold the Panthers

12:49

to hedge fund manager David Tepper. As

12:52

Tepper told the twenty eighteen graduating

12:54

class at Carnegie Mellon, domestic

12:57

violence is an issue he knows about all too

12:59

well. A kid who corn't ford to go to

13:01

an NFL game until well went to his twenties

13:04

is on the verge of getting the NFL's approval

13:06

to buy the Carolina Panthers. But

13:10

believe me, it didn't start out that way.

13:13

I grew up in a working class neighborhood of Standing

13:15

Heights in the city of Pittsburgh. My dad,

13:17

like a lot of dad's, had to work sixty hours weeks

13:19

just to make ends meet. He was physically

13:22

abusive to me. I'm sure it was a cycle

13:25

that he got from his father, his father

13:28

got from his father. In

13:30

my young life, there is no

13:32

greater adversity. If

13:34

I'm proud to say, in what I view

13:36

as the greatest accomplishment of my life, I

13:40

broke that cycle.

13:44

With that background, it's possible to change

13:46

in ownership, could change the Panther's dealings

13:49

with Sandra and Chancellor Lee. I

13:51

just think they could have been a little

13:53

more empathetic towards

13:55

our family or something.

13:58

And it's not that I wanted anything monetarily

14:02

from the Panthers. I just

14:04

think they could have showed up better. But

14:08

in the meantime, Sandra and Chancellor ly

14:11

are doing just fine. I

14:13

was reminded of that at the end of his recent therapy

14:16

session. The two of them bumped into

14:18

one of Chancellor Ley's friends at Child and Family

14:20

Development and he lit up in a way

14:22

I've never seen before. My

14:26

hair. Yeah, have

14:30

you been on vacation? Sorry,

14:34

then go Wigo,

14:37

Colorado? Where

14:40

you going next week? Texas?

14:45

Yea? What

14:58

is it that binds us to this place

15:00

as to no other? The University

15:03

of the people, the people watching

15:06

Chancellor Lee's transition to adulthood

15:08

often makes me think of my own son, My

15:11

oldest child. Chapel is twenty. He

15:13

was born just a year before Chancellor. Over

15:16

the years, I've been called away from home many times

15:18

to go cover developments in the ray Cruth story.

15:21

Once I had to balance him on my knee with one

15:23

hand and try to hold a phone and take notes

15:25

with the other while doing an interview about

15:28

the case. This past August,

15:30

I dropped Chapel off for his junior year at the

15:32

University of North Carolina, the University

15:34

of the People the People, and spent much of the three

15:37

hour drive home thinking about first the

15:39

first time I saw him read a real book to himself,

15:42

the first time. Sorry,

15:49

that always happens when I talk about them.

15:54

Let's uh, let's go on and let me think

15:56

about whether I'll be able

15:59

to get through that, all

16:02

right? Those

16:04

moments often make me think about Chancellor. Not

16:10

long ago, I saw the joy in his eyes when

16:12

he typed his own name. Yeah,

16:15

can you just take the sentence? Good

16:18

job, He too, is trying

16:20

to realize his full potential. Good

16:24

As a reporter, it's unusual to cover

16:26

a story this long. First

16:29

pick in the draft Rarely does a

16:31

writer or a family stay in one place

16:33

this long. I was fifteen on this

16:35

picture, and she was thirteen, and it was March

16:38

thirty one nine, and

16:40

I wrote spring Break on the bottom of it. I

16:42

don't think we were going anywhere. We just decided

16:44

to take pictures together. Rarely does

16:46

the story keep growing and changing

16:48

for this long. It's

16:53

a story. Caruth is mostly followed from

16:55

Sampson Correctional Institution, about

16:58

a hundred and seventy miles east of Charlote.

17:02

He's mostly been a model inmate, having

17:04

committed only four infractions in

17:06

nineteen years in prison. By

17:09

contrast, Van Brett Watkins has

17:11

committed fifty one. Karuth

17:13

has become a licensed barber, earning

17:16

one dollar a day plus tips to

17:18

cut other inmates hair. It's

17:20

a far cry from the thirty eight thousand

17:22

dollars a game he earned with the Panthers,

17:24

but friends tell me he's made his peace with it

17:27

and enjoys cutting hair. When

17:29

Kruth receives a tip, even if it's

17:31

only a quarter, he considers it a

17:33

testament to a job well done. The jury

17:35

returned unanimous verdict as follows

17:37

that the defendant Ray Lamar Karuth

17:41

is guilty of conspiracy. Following his

17:43

sentencing, Kruth's lawyers repeatedly

17:45

appealed his verdict. At

17:47

one point, a court did find Judge

17:50

Charles Lamb was wrong to allow Sharika's

17:52

handwritten hospital notes into evidence.

17:55

Those notes implicated Karuth in the shooting,

17:58

but when she wrote them, Sharik was on morphine

18:00

and a variety of other drugs following surgery,

18:03

and seven hours had passed since the

18:05

attack. David Rudolph

18:07

admits it's hard to know how much those

18:09

notes swayed the jury. He was

18:11

Kruth's lead attorney during the trial.

18:14

You know, it's hard to tell. Evidence

18:16

becomes sort of a cumulative thing.

18:19

It certainly wasn't as dramatic as

18:22

the nine one one call, but it's certainly

18:24

added substance and

18:27

it added emphasis.

18:30

But I think the nine one one call was you

18:33

know, hearing her voice is just a really

18:35

powerful thing. Despite the mistake

18:37

in admitting those notes, the appeals

18:39

court ruled that a preponderance of other

18:41

evidence tied Kruth to the shooting, and

18:43

a panel of judges they are labeled the error

18:46

quote harmless And

18:48

let me just say that Ray,

18:51

you know, in a strange sort of way. He

18:54

sort of thinks it sort of came out probably

18:57

where it should have, in that he

19:00

was responsible for putting Sharika

19:02

in that place. Kruth's

19:05

conviction was upheld there and at

19:07

every other turn. Rudolph visited

19:09

Kruth in prison in August and

19:11

received Kruth's authorization to

19:14

speak to me for this project. You know,

19:16

it wouldn't have been just for him

19:18

to be convicted of first degree murder or put

19:20

on death row, but the fact

19:22

he ended up in prison for some significant

19:25

period of time. I don't think he's bitter

19:27

about that. I mean, he he blames himself

19:30

for where he ended up. Uh,

19:33

And I think that's that's

19:35

significant, you know. I mean, I think for

19:37

somebody to be able to have that level

19:39

of self awareness and and

19:41

take responsibility like that um

19:44

is impressive. As

19:48

I drove home from Chapel Hill, I thought about

19:51

fatherhood and my own son, and

19:53

the new responsibilities awaiting Kruth

19:55

once he leaves prison, and

19:58

whether or not his new life will ever in clue

20:00

the young man learning to walk on his own at

20:02

child and family development come.

20:15

In two decades of covering Sharika Adams

20:18

murder and its aftermath, I've heard

20:20

so many things about November six that

20:24

seemed to defy reason. Yet

20:26

one unbelievable part of this saga stands

20:29

out among all the others. I

20:31

first heard it from Sandra Adams at the sentencing

20:34

for the man who orchestrated her daughter's

20:36

killing. I am forgiving Ray

20:38

Caruth. I am

20:40

forgiving Ray Caruth, the

20:43

man who spent nineteen years in prison

20:45

for conspiring to murder Sharika, the

20:48

man who permanently disabled his own

20:50

son, Chancellor Lee. I

20:53

can't hate Ray Caruth because

20:55

he is part of my grandson. Sandra's

20:58

grace despite her own sadness, was reflected

21:01

in a letter she wrote, but not

21:03

to Caruth, to the man who

21:05

shot her daughter. Van Brett Watkins

21:08

was the only one of

21:10

the four that actually

21:13

reached out to me to ask

21:16

for some forgiveness. And

21:18

he expressed remorse, and

21:21

I believed him, and I

21:23

believed his story that

21:25

he was afraid of Ray Karruth,

21:28

not the person, but the power and

21:30

what he could do. So Van

21:33

Brett Watkins sent me a letter

21:36

expressing that and I did right back

21:38

to him, and it's dated April

21:41

eighteenth and two thousand three, and I

21:43

said to him, Mr Watkins. You

21:46

know I am suffering because

21:49

of your actions. I will never be

21:51

able to hold my beautiful daughter Shaika

21:54

again. Because of your actions,

21:56

my grandson Chancellor cannot do

21:58

the simplest things like

22:01

call me grand mommy

22:03

or play ball with the other children

22:07

because of your actions. I have a huge

22:09

hole in my heart. But despite

22:11

my grief, I want you to know

22:14

that I have forgiven you. I

22:16

know you are suffering too for the horrible

22:18

choice you made that day. I want

22:21

you to know that you will always be in my

22:23

thoughts and prayers, and I wish you peace.

22:26

Sandra Adams, the

22:30

two six pound hit man who

22:32

was capable of agreeing to murder a pregnant

22:35

woman for six thousand dollars,

22:38

was shaken by Sandra's kindness. As

22:40

I sat there with Watkins in prison, he

22:43

told me Sandra's forgiveness in

22:45

the face of everything he had done to her

22:47

family was what made him question

22:49

the man he had become and the depth

22:52

of his hatred for Caruth, I

22:58

said. Karuth

23:08

declined repeated invitations to speak

23:10

on the record for this project. He

23:12

didn't testify at his own trial outside

23:15

of the one interview he did with CNN.

23:17

S I back in two thousand one. He's

23:19

never offered a full account of his side

23:21

of the story. The last on

23:23

the record statements Kruth has made were in

23:26

that letter to me in chapter one, telling

23:28

me that some mistakes can never be made

23:30

right. He sent

23:32

me that letter after talking to a TV station

23:35

and igniting a firestorm. Kruth

23:37

wouldn't speak about the specifics of that

23:39

night in when Sharika

23:42

was shot four times by someone Kruth

23:44

hired, but he does take responsibility.

23:46

After years of following his media coverage

23:49

from prison, Kruth decided the

23:51

story had been told wrong too many times.

23:54

He wrote an open letter to Sandra in February

23:57

and had it delivered to Charlotte's w BTV.

24:00

He followed that up with a phone call. He

24:02

knows his words may bring more anger, and

24:04

writes, I've long accepted my lot

24:06

as a social pariah. This is from

24:08

Sarah Blake Morgan's report. I'm apologizing

24:11

for the loss of her daughter. I'm

24:13

apologizing for the impairment of

24:15

my son. I feel responsible for everything

24:17

that happened, and I just want her to know that

24:20

truly, I am sorry for everything. At

24:22

the controversial core of w btv's

24:24

report, however, was Gruth's need to quote

24:27

debunk the lies that Miss Adams continues

24:29

to tell about me. He also questioned

24:32

her guardianship of his son. You

24:34

know, I let him down as

24:37

he came into this world. And the only way

24:39

that I can make that right, the only way that

24:41

I could work us out my relationship

24:43

with my son is to be there

24:45

for him and to be your father and a dad

24:47

to him. Going forward, I should be raising

24:49

my son. I want that responsibility

24:52

back. I've never heard Sandra angrier

24:54

than that day when I reached her by phone.

24:57

I can say definitively, he's not ever

24:59

going to have custody of Chancellor. She told

25:01

me my grandson will never be raised

25:03

by a stranger, someone he doesn't know

25:06

and who tried to kill him. Scott.

25:08

That letter was in no way

25:10

at all an apology to me. That

25:13

letter was all about him.

25:16

And I was very fooled

25:19

when I first heard those

25:21

lines, because I

25:23

cried and I thought, finally

25:26

he has come to some repentance. This

25:29

is what I've been praying for, that

25:31

he would just admit, be

25:33

a man, admit what you did.

25:36

And so I was fooled because I

25:38

saw those words. I think

25:41

he said that I could have done a better

25:43

job of keeping Sharik and Chancellor out

25:45

of harm's way. That

25:48

is a true statement. He could have not

25:50

planned it. The blowback

25:52

to that report was swift. For

25:55

years, Sandra had been adamant that she and

25:57

Chancellor Lee would be outside the prison gates

25:59

way eating for Caruth when he was released from

26:01

Sampson, where the boy who wouldn't

26:04

die could stand face to face with

26:06

the man who had wanted him dead. And

26:09

that may still be the case, but today

26:11

Sandra is far less certain. Getting

26:13

out from behind those four walls is

26:16

not gonna make him free, and

26:18

I don't want him to be free

26:21

until he can admit

26:24

what he did. And in the past

26:26

I didn't think it mattered, just do

26:28

his time get out, be free, going along

26:31

his way. But I think as the time

26:33

gets closer for him to get out,

26:35

I am feeling very differently. I'm

26:38

still feeling forgiving, and

26:41

I want still for him

26:44

to meet his son, but

26:46

I do want him to feel the

26:49

effects of what he did, because

26:51

that's what I've been looking at every

26:53

day since November sixteenth

26:56

nine and

26:58

seeing the hurt that this appointment,

27:02

seeing my dreams

27:04

last. I

27:08

want him to see that too. Soon

27:12

after that w BTV report, Carruth

27:14

wrote me a five page letter where he reversed

27:17

course. I understand that everyone

27:19

believes that I initially tried to shirk

27:21

the responsibility of raising Chancellor.

27:23

He wrote that I didn't want him.

27:26

But does that really mean that, after almost nineteen

27:28

years of incarceration, I'm supposed

27:31

to be the same man that I'm not supposed

27:33

to want to make amends with Chancellor and try

27:35

to be the father that I should have been from day

27:37

one. Nevertheless,

27:40

Kruth wrote to me he was giving up on that idea.

27:43

He told everyone to quote, please

27:45

calm down. I promised

27:47

to leave them be, he wrote, which I

27:49

now see is in everyone's best interest.

27:52

And so we're clear. This will be the last time

27:54

that I make any comments concerning this situation.

27:59

Caruthus stage to those words, and

28:01

so questions remain about what relationship,

28:03

if any, he will pursue with his son

28:05

when Gruth is released. Even

28:08

Sandra struggles for clarity. On

28:10

two occasions, I have reached

28:13

out to him. I asked

28:15

him to go ahead and send me the visitation

28:17

papers, and I got

28:19

no response from him, and

28:21

so I write to him again, and

28:24

this time, I did say

28:27

to him that, you know, he

28:29

is not going to have a

28:32

relationship with Chancellor

28:34

without sitting down and communicating

28:37

with me. And I

28:39

told him that you are going to be missing

28:42

out of your son's life.

28:45

And then I did add but

28:48

that doesn't phase you. He

28:50

did not want him. He tried to kill him.

28:54

So I am not going to keep begging

28:56

a killer to want to

28:58

be part of my grandson's life, because

29:01

my grandson is going to be sheltered

29:04

and covered and live a life

29:06

with unconditional love, and

29:09

if he can't give that, there's no need for him

29:11

to be in his life. I'm

29:13

still praying about where I'm gonna be October.

29:17

Part of me wants to be

29:20

there the day he walks

29:22

out right there where he has to come

29:24

past me so he

29:26

can acknowledge his son. And

29:29

then there's part of me that

29:33

just wants to be chilling out

29:35

on a beach somewhere on October and

29:39

moving on with my life because I

29:41

don't. The question I have to ask

29:44

myself is the same question Sharika

29:46

asked me that night. Why

29:48

am I here? What is this even

29:50

about? Her

29:53

questions come back the

29:56

story of Sharika's life is being heard today

29:59

louder than ever. Sandra

30:01

has become a passionate advocate on behalf

30:03

of domestic violence victims, honoring

30:05

her daughter's legacy by speaking to gatherings

30:08

ranging from the mothers of murdered offspring.

30:10

I found out that you sent them around

30:13

and be pitiful and

30:15

wallowing the pain and let

30:17

it just consume your life all the

30:20

time. Or you can take

30:22

back your power. Let's

30:25

keep my thoughts on love. Let's keep

30:27

my thoughts on forgivious.

30:30

We're deciding and we want this. That pain

30:33

just rule our whole lot, to

30:35

vulnerable populations behind bars,

30:37

forgiveness, to me the whole

30:42

hostage. Late

30:45

last year, I captured this audio from

30:47

Mecklenburg County Jail on my phone.

30:54

It's not and

30:57

sometimes national TV audiences

31:00

to present the Walter Camp American Hero Award

31:02

for Here

31:04

she is in New Haven, Connecticut, at a celebration

31:07

for the best college football players in the country,

31:09

being honored on ESPN. I

31:12

think I'm a grandmom that would

31:15

do what she is supposed to

31:17

do in the face of tragedy. This

31:20

award is first and foremost

31:23

for Shaika and then

31:26

for my grandson, Chancellor H.

31:37

Here ten miles east of Uptown Charlotte.

31:40

I met with Sandra and Chancellor early one

31:42

more time for this project at Sharika's

31:45

final resting place. Cool.

31:48

You see Mommy angels, Grace does

31:51

pretty Adams,

31:56

Mommy angel all

32:00

right, m hm, Pine

32:03

and oak trees ring the white open grounds.

32:05

Here there's a bright blue sky overhead.

32:09

A vase full of purple and yellow flowers

32:11

sits by Sharika's headstone, which

32:13

is adorned with a familiar sight, the

32:16

same sort of butterflies she loved as a child,

32:18

etched in bronze because

32:22

they had several different little border things.

32:25

But I told him, I said, well, I know, I want

32:27

butterflies on it. I

32:30

want it. Sharik and chancelloroud

32:33

have same initials, so they do. See La

32:37

Chancellor Lee Adams and Sharika Luvinia

32:39

Adams. Sharika had my mom's middle

32:41

name, and Chancellor has my dad's middle

32:43

name, A Lee.

32:46

Yeah, because Lee is the family name. Yeah.

32:49

So yeah,

32:51

so cee l A and c l A here

32:53

at Sunset Memory Gardens. It's

32:55

only natural Sondra would reflect again upon

32:58

those family traditions handed down through the

33:00

generations. We don't

33:02

have any more heirs to the Adam's

33:04

name and he's the last boy. Really

33:08

yeah, because see my sister's children

33:10

are not Adams. Is there her

33:12

husband's last name? So I

33:15

was like, we it's a lot riding only

33:17

here, it's a lot riding on. Yeah,

33:19

a lot of pressure, man. Yeah,

33:22

you got to carry on the Adam's name. Yeah,

33:25

I don't know. You're kind

33:28

of flirty. I don't know You're gonna carry on

33:30

the Adam's name. Boy. You

33:33

got two girl friends, I don't know,

33:36

two girlfriends. Yeah.

33:40

Days away from Caruth's release from prison,

33:43

I wondered if she had any new thoughts on the

33:45

man convicted of conspiring to kill her

33:47

daughter. Basically, you know what from

33:50

the journal entries did

33:52

I have from Sharika and from

33:55

my perspective of what Sharika

33:57

thought their relationship was, I've

34:00

to leave. Sharika loved

34:02

Ray and so if she

34:04

saw some good in him,

34:08

I want to dig and dig and dig until

34:10

I find that good too. I

34:12

also wanted to deliver to them the card

34:14

Van Brett Watkins sent me. I think he

34:16

has plenty of time to write letters.

34:19

He really has a nice penmanship he does.

34:21

It's very readable and

34:24

to make sure she saw Watkins closing

34:26

thought, which stuck with me. A

34:28

zebra never sheds his stripes, nor

34:31

does a leopard lose his spots. He's

34:33

still unrepentive. That's a

34:35

danger to you and Chancellor. Um

34:38

hmm, okay,

34:43

what do you think. I think it's

34:45

written in all sincerity,

34:47

and I believe

34:49

he's doing his best to warn

34:56

me that

34:59

last bed of the person that he knows.

35:02

And um, I actually feel

35:04

some of the same kind of way.

35:08

Yeah. I think the Great Maya

35:10

Angelo summed it up the

35:12

best. When people show

35:14

you who they are, believe

35:16

them the first time. Ray

35:20

is a coward. So Ray

35:22

would never come back here and do anything. But

35:25

that doesn't mean he wouldn't send someone. So

35:27

I am a little anxious,

35:30

and I'm not going to live in fear, but

35:32

I'm taking a lot of precautions.

35:40

Where Caruth goes after his release remains

35:42

a question. I've been told over the

35:44

past year that maybe he'll return home to California

35:47

or remain in North Carolina. I've

35:50

been told he might get married, or that he might

35:52

change his name. One thing we

35:54

do know, soon his sentence will be over.

35:57

He's only forty four years old. I

35:59

think he's looking forward to, uh getting

36:01

out and restarting his life.

36:03

Here again is David Rudolph, Kruth's

36:05

lawyer. He's matured immensely,

36:08

as you can imagine, um and

36:10

uh it feels very strongly

36:13

that he wants to just sort

36:15

of try to do something positive

36:17

with the rest of his life. Caruth will be a

36:19

free man and will have paid his debt to society.

36:22

But as society forgiving him, you

36:24

know, it does not bother me a bit that he's going

36:26

to be getting out of jail. This is Clark

36:28

Pennell, the jury foreman in Kruth's

36:30

trial. He was given a trial, he was convicted,

36:33

he served his time, and

36:35

it's time for all of us to be getting out with

36:37

our lives. Ruth orchestrated

36:40

that murder. This is Darryl Price, one

36:42

of the detectives who investigated Sharika's

36:44

murder. He was convicted of conspiracy

36:48

to commit murder, but not the actual murder

36:50

itself. I don't even understand

36:52

how that's possible. If

36:54

you're convicted of conspiracy to commit a murder

36:57

that actually occurred, I don't

36:59

know how you could not found guilty of that actual

37:01

murder. Absolutely, I do

37:03

not think he's guilty, and I think it's a less

37:05

carriage of justice. Here's Monique

37:08

Young, one of Kruth's longtime friends.

37:10

It just hurts my heart, you know what. I mean that

37:12

he's had to deal with this for so long, but

37:14

he's such a strong person that

37:17

I think he's dealt with it very

37:20

good. And Dosha Hikey, the doctor

37:22

who cared for Chancellor Lye at the hospital.

37:25

I mean he planned this. He was supposed to kill

37:27

her in the baby. You know, that's what he wanted.

37:29

It was them, heard them to be gone. And that's

37:31

just from someone who cares

37:34

a lot about Sander and Chancellor. You know, I

37:36

was like, right, the son of a bitch was what I wanted.

37:38

I think it's a Travis him and the guy with death penalty

37:41

eligible, and it would have been an appropriate

37:43

sentence for him in my view. Here's

37:45

Tom Athey, who led the police investigation

37:47

into Sharika's murder. I mean, look what

37:50

he did through is on child. You really can't get

37:52

beyond that. When you make a choice to

37:54

take two lives, can you

37:57

really change from that? And Valerie

37:59

Brooks, one of Sharika's best friends,

38:02

Is that possible? I just don't know that

38:04

that can happen. I don't know

38:06

that he's remorseful. This is Van

38:08

Brett Watkins, the hipman who's still

38:11

consumed by hatred for Kruth. What

38:13

did you feel about Ray Kruth now? And

38:18

this is Sandra again. So what he did,

38:20

it deserves the

38:23

harshest punishment. He

38:25

deserves to be dead for

38:27

what he did to my daughter. But

38:31

I forgive him

38:33

because I want to love my grandson

38:36

unconditionally. And I

38:38

don't even want to see Ray Krruth go to hell.

38:41

I want him to come to repentance.

38:44

I want to forgive him

38:47

so that I can move on and

38:52

enjoy the fruits of my labor

38:55

and enjoy my life, because if I'm

38:57

sitting around and unforgiveness,

39:00

it's like me drinking poison and hoping

39:02

he's gonna die. And that's not gonna

39:04

happen for

39:11

now anyway. Chancellor Lee is here

39:13

at Child and Family Development, continuing

39:16

to work toward new goals. Today

39:18

he's moved beyond the spoon and is working

39:20

with occupational therapist Meghan Davidson

39:23

Palmer on a new challenge, cutting

39:25

plato with a plastic fork and knife.

39:28

So you're just using the fork to kind of

39:31

hold its steady and then you're

39:33

cutting it from there. Okay,

39:36

there you go. Wow good,

39:40

He grins yet again. And

39:42

in a way, I think this young man was

39:44

what all of this was about. Rake

39:47

Ruth didn't want him, Van Brett Watkins

39:50

tried to kill him. Sharika Adams

39:52

saved him, Sandra Adams raised

39:54

him. Countless others have supported

39:56

and protected and nurtured him.

40:00

He was born from tragedy and has

40:02

spent nearly every day since in the embrace

40:04

of a grandmother who will go to any links

40:07

to see that Chancellor Lee is loved. It's

40:10

really not even about the crime, because

40:12

all of us go through our

40:16

death of a loved one sometimes

40:19

and when we focus on what we've

40:21

lost, we don't see what we

40:23

have left. So today my focus

40:26

is on what I have left and

40:28

all the joy that has brought me,

40:31

and that in some ways,

40:34

if this hadn't happened, I

40:37

never would have stepped into the greatness that

40:39

God had for me, because

40:41

it has shown me a part of me that

40:44

I didn't know lived in there. I

40:46

am bigger than I thought I was. I

40:49

am more faithful than

40:51

I thought I was. I'm

40:55

more loving and compassionate than

40:57

I ever thought I could be, And

41:01

for that I really have Ray caer Roof to

41:03

thank. With

41:14

Autumn here again, Preparations are already

41:16

underway for Chancellor Lee's upcoming birthday.

41:19

This time last year, I spent the afternoon

41:21

with him and Sandra and Charlotte's Freedom

41:24

Park, just across the street from

41:26

the hospital where Chancellor was born. It

41:28

was like it was just a couple of years ago we

41:31

were bringing him home from the hospital.

41:33

So it's amazing. I'm

41:37

just so thankful that I can associate

41:39

November sixteenth with the day

41:42

my grandchild was born. Our

41:44

mutual boy, you

41:47

have a birthday coming up? Yeah, do

41:49

you know when your birthday is? Charley

41:52

Jake? November sixteenth?

41:55

That's right. I'm

42:00

Scott Fowler and this podcast is produced

42:02

by Jeff Signer and Rachel Wise

42:04

and Davin Coburn at McClatchy Studios.

42:08

Are we on boak right now? That's

42:11

hot and sometimes it's

42:13

a midlife thing, so

42:17

can we with a good land?

42:21

Good job? All right, job,

42:27

I'm gonna take okay, stop

42:30

asking from chance I

42:34

may not need to come anymore. It's

42:36

going to interview you find

42:41

lots more about this case at Charlotte Observer

42:44

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42:54

pass. A special

42:57

thank you to Sherry Chisenhall, Robin

42:59

Tomlin, Gary Schwab, Mike

43:01

Persinger, Gene Siegel, and

43:03

Jonathan Forsyth for their support of

43:05

this project. And thank you to our

43:07

nonprofit partners No More, the

43:10

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence

43:13

Safe Alliance and the Children's

43:15

Defense Fund. Leave us

43:17

a rating and a review on Apple Podcast,

43:19

and you can reach me directly at s Fowler

43:21

at Charlotte observer dot com.

43:24

Thanks so much for listening.