Episode Transcript
Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.
Use Ctrl + F to search
0:00
A listener. Note this story contains
0:03
adult language and some graphic descriptions
0:05
of violence. It's
0:15
November on a Sunday afternoon in Pennsylvania,
0:18
and I'm looking for answers a few hundred
0:20
miles from home. All
0:24
right, So it's a pretty
0:26
November day in Pennsylvania
0:29
where Ray Caruth now lives, and
0:33
I'm headed there right now. I
0:35
originally met Ray Kruth in when
0:38
he was a first round draft choice for the Carolina
0:40
Panthers. I interviewed him a number
0:42
of times back then. But two years
0:45
later, the former NFL wide receiver was
0:47
arrested on a murder charge involving the
0:49
death of his pregnant girlfriend, Sharika Adams.
0:52
Lamar Kruth is guilty
0:55
of conspiracy to commit murder
0:57
of Sharika Adams. And since
0:59
that time time, despite all the reporting
1:01
I've done and all the attempts I've made,
1:04
I've not spoken face to face with Ray
1:06
Kruth in twenty years. Former
1:09
Carolina Panther Ray Carruth is out of prison
1:11
and now out of the state. The
1:14
Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole
1:16
confirms Carruth is now under its
1:18
supervision. Soon after Kruth
1:20
was released from a North Carolina prison
1:22
after serving nearly nineteen years
1:24
for conspiracy to commit murder, he
1:27
relocated to Pennsylvania. Exactly
1:30
where in Pennsylvania no one seemed
1:32
to know, but I figured out where
1:35
he lives and so on. That late autumn
1:37
afternoon, I traveled to the Keystone
1:39
State to ring Ray Krruth's
1:41
doorbell. To
1:43
my surprise, what I had hoped could be Caruth's
1:46
first sit down, face to face interview
1:48
in nearly two decades quickly
1:50
became something far more, a
1:52
wide ranging conversation between the two
1:54
of us that spanned several weeks in
1:57
person, on the phone, through
1:59
email, el and by text. We
2:02
talked about life here in two thousand and eighteen,
2:05
from smartphones to social media
2:07
to the many kinds of cheerios that have been
2:09
invented since he went to prison. We
2:12
talked about Kruth's future as a freeman
2:15
in the history that will follow him wherever
2:17
he goes. And
2:21
of course, we talked about fatherhood and
2:24
the child he had wanted dead. What
2:26
would you do if you met your
2:28
father? His
2:31
son? Chancellor ly say
2:34
hey, yeah yeah.
2:39
From the Charlotte Observer and McClatchy Studios,
2:42
this is Caruth I'm
2:44
Scott Fowler, and this is the epilogue healing
2:48
and the road ahead. I
3:00
will take a look at the twists and turns
3:03
and here. October
3:06
two, two thousand eighteen,
3:08
was a cold morning in Clinton, North Carolina,
3:11
some two hundred miles east of Charlotte.
3:14
At four am. The sky was clear outside
3:17
Sampson Correctional Institution, but
3:19
I couldn't see any stars through the dozens
3:21
of lights being set up by local and national
3:24
TV crews.
3:30
Everyone was there to cover Ray Carruth's
3:32
release after nineteen years
3:34
behind bars. Two people
3:36
were conspicuously absent outside
3:39
the prison that morning, Sandra and
3:41
Chancellor Lee Adams, Sharika's
3:43
mother and the son Caruth tried to
3:45
have killed. I'm still praying about
3:47
where I'm gonna be October two.
3:50
Sandra told us months before that she had
3:52
mixed feelings about attending Caruth's
3:54
release from prison. Part of me
3:57
wants to be there,
4:00
right there where he has to come past me
4:03
so he can acknowledge his son.
4:06
And then there's part of me that
4:09
just wants to be chilling out
4:12
on a beach somewhere on October
4:15
and moving on with my life. Ultimately,
4:20
Sandra and Chancellor. Lee left Charlotte
4:22
for a few days, telling me later that local
4:25
TV coverage had been overwhelming. For
4:27
the last nineteen years he has
4:29
lived as Ray Wiggins, North
4:32
Carolina. Every time she turned on the TV, she
4:34
said she heard the sounds of her daughter dying.
4:41
They're in Clinton. The morning was quiet,
4:43
except for all the portable generators the TV
4:45
crews had brought with them. Prison
4:49
officials wasted no time. Kruth
4:51
could legally be released as early as eight
4:53
am on October two, and
4:55
at eight oh two am, inmate
4:58
number zero seven one to E to
5:00
two appeared about forty yards away
5:02
from the media in a black leather jacket,
5:05
a white T shirt, and a black skull
5:07
cap. Do I'm gonna step out of the shot here so
5:09
everybody has a view. He's being
5:12
escorted by several different people. You'll
5:14
be able to see him with a clear image in just
5:16
a couple of seconds. He walked a few yards
5:18
to awaiting Chevy Tahoe, chauffeured
5:21
by a car service his family had hired.
5:24
He exchanged a few words with prison officials,
5:27
climbed into the back seat of the suv, and
5:29
the driver sped away. Kruth
5:34
didn't speak to the media, so
5:36
I taped a few of my own thoughts with producers
5:38
Matt Walsh and Jeff Signer. They
5:41
had also made the drive to Clinton. So
5:44
it's about eight thirty AM and
5:46
Raykruth just walked out of
5:48
prison. He's forty four now.
5:51
Wherever he's gonna live, which we're not sure where
5:53
it is, but he has to have a
5:55
post release program which
5:57
includes regular visits
5:59
to someone who's sort of like a parole officer.
6:02
Basically, I thought he wouldn't
6:04
talk, and he didn't. He
6:06
walked directly out of this little Britain building
6:09
about twenty or thirty yards
6:12
and then he went out through the gate and
6:15
he has gone.
6:19
Caruth's release was national news everywhere
6:22
from NPR. May
6:25
be hard to remember just how shocking it was
6:27
back in when Carolina Panther's
6:29
wide receiver, Ray kr Ruth was charged
6:32
with the ann Well,
6:34
my NFL star next Carolina Panther. Ray
6:36
Kruth is now a freeman. Walking out of
6:38
a North Carolina prison this morning,
6:41
it caused people to remember where they were twenty
6:43
years ago when those details surrounding
6:45
Sharika's death had first come to light.
6:48
Ray who
6:51
helped playing the gut comedian
6:55
Steve Harvey had that famous riff in the original
6:57
Kings of Comedy about Caruth being
7:00
und in the trunk of a car running
7:02
from authorities in n Was
7:05
this not they ignitted to ever
7:07
seen? Normally? What you try
7:09
to say is a person do their
7:11
time, they get out, they
7:14
deserve a second chance, because
7:16
we can't just throw people
7:18
away. The day after Caruth's
7:20
release, Harvey reflected on that
7:22
with his co host on his national radio
7:24
show, This When Right
7:27
Here is different. Man. I
7:29
wrote a joke about this guy
7:31
hiding it. Why he thought he was gonna get away
7:33
with this? When you running from the law,
7:36
you want to get a pass support y
7:39
read to your fel like
7:42
they ain't gonna spatch your black ass and
7:44
nashvill you know
7:46
I've forgotten all about the joke he
7:48
gets today. Man, do
7:50
you know how much living we've done almost
7:53
nineteen years before
7:55
his release, I've been told Karuth my head
7:57
back to Sacramento where he grew up. The
8:00
two days after he got out, TMZ
8:02
was the first to report something unexpected.
8:05
Former Carolina panther Ray Kruth is out
8:07
of prison and now out of the state.
8:10
The Pennsylvania a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania
8:12
Department of Corrections confirmed that information
8:15
to me, but she wouldn't say exactly
8:17
where in the state Kruth was or
8:19
who he was living with. Sandra
8:21
Adams was equally confused by the move. Yes,
8:24
that's that's that's good for me. It is
8:26
because I thought he was going to Texas
8:28
or California maybe, but as
8:31
long as Ray Kruth was more than four miles
8:33
away from her and her grandson. Sandra
8:35
told me later the reasons why hardly mattered.
8:38
All of it still farther away from
8:40
North Carolina, and I think that gives
8:43
me a better sense of security.
8:45
And not that I'm afraid of
8:48
him, but I don't want
8:50
even the thought of him popping up at
8:52
my door. Six
9:00
days after Ray Caruth's released from prison,
9:02
Sandra and Chancellor Lee did something they've never
9:05
done before,
9:09
thanks to a Carolina Panthers season ticket
9:11
holder who lives in Charlotte. My name
9:13
is Jason Underwood and
9:17
I'm a finance manager at Duke Energy. My
9:19
wife, Angelica uh and I have
9:21
been married fourteen years, and
9:23
my son Alexander is
9:26
thirteen and been taking him to
9:28
games since he was a toddler and he
9:30
was afraid of the flyover planes and
9:32
screaming to take him out of the stadium. And
9:35
and then I have a seven year old daughter around Gabriella.
9:42
Underwood has been to hundreds of Panthers
9:44
games in n He
9:47
lived about an hour and fifteen minutes away from
9:49
Charlotte when Sharika was shot, and
9:51
I just remember following it day by day and just
9:54
almost hoping that it wasn't him, that
9:56
someone would actually do something like
9:58
that, you know, or sure
10:00
Heke had died. There were all kinds of stories
10:03
being floated, and up until
10:06
he flew and got into the trunk,
10:08
I held out hope that it wasn't him.
10:10
But when that happened, I think we all just knew an
10:13
innocent person doesn't do that. I've
10:16
never met Underwood until recently. I
10:20
was glad to finally call it dude on Alexander,
10:23
Sandra and Chancellor Lee had only met him a
10:25
few years ago, but that's when Underwood
10:28
decided he wanted to do something for them.
10:30
In two thousand and fifteen, I
10:33
believe that was when the first
10:35
article in your series came
10:37
out, and I couldn't believe
10:40
it, you know, I think I reread
10:42
the article about three times, just because I was
10:44
incredulous that someone could
10:46
be this forgiving, could have this level
10:48
of grace. And then shortly
10:51
after that, we were sitting in the
10:53
Duke Energy seats at a Panther Tampa
10:55
Bay game. And of course this is two thousand and fifteen,
10:58
the year that they had the run to the Super Bowl, and
11:00
we were right behind them, and if probably
11:02
if I hadn't been for that that article, I wouldn't
11:04
have recognized. And so,
11:07
you know, I leaned forward and I said, are
11:09
you who I think you are? And then she didn't
11:12
immediately response. She's just kind of sized me up. You
11:14
know, I'm sure she's approached fifty
11:16
times a day, and she just
11:18
kind of nodded, yes, yes, I believe.
11:20
So that
11:23
conversation began a friendship that
11:25
continues to this day. Underwood
11:27
and the adams Is have gotten together several times
11:30
to attend a preseason Panthers game or to
11:32
share a meal. Underwood didn't really
11:34
understand why the Panthers weren't more proactive
11:36
with the adams Is, who, after all, had been
11:39
tragically affected by the team drafting
11:41
Caruthan and bringing
11:43
him to Charlotte in the first place. So
11:48
for the past few years, Underwood has been in
11:50
touch with Riley Fields, the Panthers
11:52
director of community Relations. I
11:55
know that he wanted to provide a
11:57
game day experience for them,
12:00
and the prior season back
12:02
in seventeen, I think
12:04
there was the hope that maybe he was going
12:06
to come to a game and then Chancellor
12:09
was ill or something like that, and it just
12:11
it just never happened. So Fields has
12:13
been working for the Panthers since two thousand three,
12:16
about two years after Kruth was convicted
12:18
of conspiracy to commit murder. Fields
12:21
had never met the adams Is, but after talking
12:23
to Underwood, he wanted to do something for the family
12:25
too. So when Underwood told Fields
12:27
he planned to bring Sandra and Chancellor lead to a
12:30
game this past October, Fields
12:32
decided to supersize the visit. Jason
12:35
reached back out. He wanted to still kind
12:37
of follow through, I think on the promise that he had
12:39
made too to Sandra and
12:41
bring him to a game and um kind
12:44
of describe what they were doing that day,
12:46
and and I thought that we had an
12:48
opportunity maybe to provide a little
12:50
bit of an enhancement to what Chancellor's
12:53
experience could be on that day. So it was
12:56
started with the efforts of I would
12:58
say a good Samaritan, and um,
13:00
it just picked up a little bit of momentum
13:03
from that point on. I
13:05
was covering the game on October when
13:07
the Panthers hosted the Baltimore Ravens.
13:09
I met Jason and his son and Sandra
13:12
and Chancellor Lee outside the gates at Bank
13:14
of America Stadium. You got to cam
13:16
Newton Jersey. They
13:19
had all just come from breakfast together and
13:21
Chancellor wore a brand new cam Newton
13:23
jersey.
13:30
Instead of heading to their seats, however, we all
13:32
met fields and he walked
13:34
them through the player's tunnel right
13:38
out onto the field where
13:43
Chancellor Lee's father had once heard the roar
13:45
of seventy thousand fans cheering
13:48
for him.
13:54
I've got goose bumps as we're sitting here talking about
13:56
it. When Chancellor came
13:58
out of the tunnel, every on the
14:00
sidelines like whoa, and he
14:02
got a pause. People in the stands
14:04
there was a pause. There was just support
14:07
for him because I think there's a light
14:09
that radiates out of him and to
14:12
have people celebrate him
14:14
in that moment for
14:25
almost an hour, Sandra and Chancellor Earle
14:28
stood on the field while the Panthers warmed up.
14:31
Fields hadn't told the players they were coming, and
14:33
not all of them knew the story anyway. On
14:36
the chaotic night Chancellor Lee was born
14:38
in Most of
14:40
the players on this team were still in elementary
14:42
school, but some of them still recognize
14:44
the team's special guests and made
14:46
it a point to welcome them.
14:52
Pro Bowl center Ryan Khalil is a dad
14:54
himself. Yeah, it's familiar with the story, and
14:56
it's a situation that I can possibly
14:58
fathom. I gotta go. Learned me the family
15:00
and seemed like a great kid. So he
15:06
came over to the Adams Is twice, the
15:08
second time to offer Chancellor Ly a
15:10
gift. We
15:14
usually have an extra ball at the end of our individual
15:16
period, so and I've usually given it out to
15:19
kids around the sidelines, so I thought it would be right
15:21
up to giving ball. Look at
15:23
you.
15:32
Anthers safety Mike Adams isn't related
15:34
to Sandra or Chancellor Lee, but seeing
15:36
the last name Adams on his jersey still
15:39
made Sandra feel like she had family on the
15:41
field.
15:45
I recognize him because he don't. To me, he looked
15:47
just like right when she said Adams.
15:50
Adams, you're out of your my cousin, My cousin did
15:52
I went over there and then I'm like, okay, yeah,
15:54
we cousin. It
15:58
was humble. Before I left, I give in my
16:00
gloves and and everything, and you
16:02
know, I was proud to just
16:04
being his presence. You know, it made me feel
16:06
good. Then came another player visit
16:09
from wide receiver Devin Funch. Us Fields
16:15
and the rest of the Panthers just call him
16:17
Funch. Several guys came
16:20
over and Funch was
16:22
in his I'm just gonna say, full battle
16:24
regalia. I mean, he had a helmet on. They're
16:26
all padded up. I mean, it's it's a pretty spectacular
16:28
site. And then certainly someone like Devon
16:31
who's six three six four, they
16:34
look like superheroes in in
16:36
some sense. And he came over and
16:38
um handed Chancellor's gloves
16:41
and got down set a few things to
16:43
him, and you know, then he was off Chancellors
16:47
holding the gloves and
16:49
he just said wow, and
16:52
just out of nowhere, he turned
16:55
and I could feel him looking at me, and
16:57
I looked down at him and he just says, thank
17:00
you. That
17:03
it was just I mean, no,
17:06
that was not expected. Of him. He did
17:08
not have to say that. That was
17:10
just um, it's a
17:13
good stuff. It's good stuff.
17:17
Sandra's favorite visit on the sideline came
17:19
from someone who wouldn't be playing that day.
17:26
Hedge fund billionaire David Tepper
17:28
bought the team from Jerry Richardson. This past
17:30
summer. Tepper has taught publicly
17:32
about growing up with an abusive father. He
17:35
specifically wanted to introduce himself to
17:37
the adams Is and then the three of them took
17:39
a photo together. The
17:47
NFL, about four plus years
17:49
ago, found ourselves in a complicated
17:52
situation and facing a lot of challenges
17:55
and made a decision to
17:57
be part of the solution on domestic
18:00
and send sexual assault. Anna Isaacson
18:02
is the NFL Senior vice president
18:04
for Social Responsibility. She told
18:06
me recently about how the NFL is trying to
18:08
better educate players in society
18:11
at large about domestic violence.
18:13
And we've been looking at it through a couple of different
18:16
lenses, handling discipline
18:18
in a certain way, but also really focusing on
18:21
survivors and family members and providing
18:24
resources when people find themselves in
18:26
situations dealing with violence.
18:28
All of that sounds like great ideas.
18:31
And very little of it was probably
18:33
in place in when
18:35
Ray Caruth's conspiracy first
18:37
surfaced. I think there's a better understanding.
18:40
I honestly think that there
18:42
was a lack of understanding of how
18:44
pervasive the issues were, of
18:47
why people find themselves in these situations,
18:49
what leads to it, what are the warning signs.
18:53
I think hearing from survivors and telling
18:55
their story helps people to see
18:57
that this goes on everywhere. And
19:00
when you're hearing someone speak emotionally
19:02
of the real impact that it's had on their family.
19:05
I mean, of course I find it incredibly powerful
19:07
and moving, but I just think it moves people in a
19:09
different way.
19:21
About ninety minutes later, I caught up
19:23
with Sandra in the stands
19:28
take pictures. The thoughts of the players
19:31
and the owner came over
19:33
into It was huge.
19:39
The team upgraded their seats for a better view,
19:42
and after the Panthers first touchdown Jeffrey
19:45
tim five touchdown,
19:49
the in house TV cameras showed Sandra
19:51
and Chancellory on the huge video scoreboards
19:54
had a name upon the thing when you walking,
20:00
where is that? And
20:07
the crowd went crazy.
20:17
Even the players on the field heard. The noise
20:19
level changed then including All
20:21
Pro linebacker Luke Keikley. You
20:24
know, I didn't I didn't have a chance to meet him, but they
20:26
showed him on the Jumbo tryn and he was he was
20:28
smiling big time and and you could just
20:30
hear hear the crowd react when when they showed him
20:32
on there, he was half he was excited, and I
20:34
really got the crowd going. I
20:37
tried to ask Chancellor Lee about the experience,
20:40
but Panther fans kept coming by, anxious
20:42
to meet him. One after another.
20:44
They asked for photos, what the Adams is, or
20:47
simply wanted to tell them how inspirational
20:49
they were.
20:55
Chancellor Lee just kept smiling. It
20:58
kind of accelerated when they got the jumbo
21:00
tron, you know, because not a lot of people
21:02
may have known Underwood had a front
21:05
row seat as Sandra and her grandson were
21:07
approached over and over, I'd say forty
21:09
or fifty some some of the people they were
21:11
just there to tell her how inspired
21:14
they were, and yeah, they generally wanted
21:16
a picture, but you know, Sandra just she
21:19
just one after the other, okay, okay,
21:25
and those conversations always became more
21:28
than just a quick hello. Even
21:31
thirteen year old Alexander Underwood found
21:33
that when you asked Sandra how she's doing, you
21:35
often end up talking a lot about yourself.
21:37
Oh she's so kind. She always
21:40
wants to know more about everybody else. You
21:42
know, I thought somebody
21:44
that would you know, was in the papers and
21:47
everything, would act differently,
21:49
but no, she's just like one of us, but way
21:51
kinder. In my time with the
21:54
adams Is over the years, I've often
21:56
seen Sandra be hesitant about strangers
21:58
wanting to interact with Chancellor League. But
22:00
on this day, all the interactions were positive.
22:03
Sandra made sure of that. I really
22:06
still want to thank the Panthers and their
22:09
staff about how smoothly
22:11
everything went, and and I felt
22:14
like that was my time to
22:16
really give back to the community
22:18
because people have been praying
22:20
for us and really encouraging
22:23
us for all these years, and this
22:25
was just my way of saying, come
22:28
on, welcome in. You know, in
22:30
the past, I'd been a little reluctant
22:32
about everybody taking pictures of Chancellor
22:35
and everything, but you know, this
22:37
was my chance to show our hearts
22:39
and to give back and say, hey, sure, you
22:41
know, come on take a picture with us. We're glad
22:44
to be here. You know, it really
22:46
made him feel special, and especially
22:49
being so close to his birthday as
22:51
well, that was like a treat
22:53
for him.
23:01
After Sandra and Chancellor release Great Day
23:03
at the Stadium, it seemed like at least
23:05
one part of this saga had some closure,
23:08
But after two decades of reporting, I
23:10
felt like there was still something missing from the story.
23:13
Caruth himself all
23:15
right. So it's a pretty November
23:18
day in Pennsylvania, where
23:20
Ray Caruth now lives. Caruth
23:23
hadn't returned my messages in months, but
23:25
through a little more reporting I had been
23:27
able to figure out that he was living with a friend.
23:30
So in November I took a flight to Pennsylvania
23:33
and I rented a car and I'm headed
23:36
there right now in a
23:38
black Buick regal license
23:41
plate. I recorded these notes
23:43
while sitting in a parking lot near the highway,
23:46
and so my plan is to just walk
23:48
up to the door and knock on it and
23:52
make sure that he doesn't want to speak
23:54
to me. In fact, he hasn't done a
23:57
lengthy sit down interview about the events
23:59
of Night to shureke adams
24:01
death really ever. But
24:04
the closest he came was in two thousand
24:06
one when he talked to c an n s
24:08
I, Ray, did you conspire to murder Shriek
24:10
Adams and your unborn son? No?
24:12
I did not. I was not there. I
24:14
didn't see the shooting. I didn't hear any shots.
24:17
I can't testify anything that happened Surrek and Ray
24:20
Road. But even that story,
24:22
he has changed some components of it through
24:25
David Rudolph in this podcast. Uh,
24:28
and this is sort of new information. I guess.
24:31
At some point on Ray Road, Ray
24:34
saw Van Brett Watkins pull
24:36
out and he panned.
24:39
He took off because he was
24:41
afraid that Van Brett Watkins
24:44
was coming to get him.
24:47
I'm feeling a little bit nervous about
24:49
this. Certainly he doesn't know
24:52
that I'm coming. I drove
24:54
to Caruth's house and parked
24:56
in his empty driveway.
24:59
OW walked seven steps up to the glass
25:02
storm door inside.
25:04
The front door was open, and I could see
25:06
a pair of small dogs that looked like chihuahua's
25:08
barking like crazy. I
25:10
rang the doorbell and then
25:13
the barking stopped. A
25:15
silhouette appeared from around the corner.
25:17
A muscular man about five ft
25:19
ten. His head was freshly
25:22
shaven. It was Ray
25:24
Kruth. He opened
25:26
the glass door and stepped outside, wearing
25:28
a white T shirt, red gym shorts,
25:31
and Nike tennis shoes. I
25:34
introduced myself, not really sure what he
25:36
would do next, but really not
25:38
expecting what he actually did. Carruth
25:42
laughed, I had a feeling
25:44
you might pop up sometime, he said. He
25:47
asked me not to tell anyone where he lives, and
25:49
I agreed. I apologized
25:52
for showing up at his door unannounced. I
25:54
explained that I didn't have his phone number, and
25:56
that I thought it was only fair to give him one more chance
25:59
to talk before we finished a podcast
26:01
that is named for him. After all.
26:05
He was silent for a moment, and then Kruth
26:07
opened the door. Come on in, he
26:09
said, I can't
26:11
share Kruth's voice here, unfortunately,
26:14
because he declined to let me record our
26:16
conversation. He told me he's
26:18
trying to rebuild his life quietly, but
26:20
he pointed to his kitchen table. Have
26:23
a seat. He told me he
26:25
did agree to let me share almost all of
26:27
what we discussed over the next half hour
26:30
about his past, the defendant, ray
26:32
Lamar Karuth, and his future.
26:35
He got into that white suv and
26:37
now is unclear where he is off
26:39
to, but his time here at Sampson
26:41
Correctional Institute has come to an end. He
26:47
sat across from me with that same half
26:49
smile I remembered from the day he got out
26:51
of prison. He was holding a bottle
26:53
of cleaner and a sponge. Kruth
26:55
said he was getting ready for a visit from his mother,
26:57
Theodrey, who was flying in from Cali,
27:00
Fornia that night. I could see
27:02
the kitchen had indeed been cleaned like someone
27:04
expecting to visit from their mother. And when
27:06
I mentioned I hadn't seen Theodrey at the prison
27:08
in October, Karuth confirmed this
27:10
would be the first time they had seen each other since
27:12
he got out. Something else stood
27:14
out at that kitchen table. There were ten
27:17
boxes of different kinds of cheerios lined
27:19
up directly in front of me, in two rows
27:21
of five. Kruth smiled when I
27:23
asked about them. Okay, buddy, what's your favorite
27:26
kind of cheerios? He
27:28
said he had seen an ad for the cereal while
27:30
he was locked up. As he put it in
27:33
the commercial and African American
27:35
dad is fixing his young son breakfast.
27:39
Other favorite were
27:42
favorite. Karuth
27:44
told me the ad stayed with him on an emotional
27:47
level. Okay, but what's
27:49
your most favorite of all? Kind
27:52
of half with you me
27:57
too. He
28:00
later put these thoughts in an email. He said,
28:02
I could read here quote the
28:05
commercial had sentimental value mainly
28:07
because of the content, though not necessarily
28:10
the color of the actor's skin. I
28:12
guess it resonated with me because it was the
28:14
kind of moment I'm sure every man would
28:16
love to have with his child. It
28:18
was a poignant reminder of what I was missing
28:20
out with on my own children, the closeness,
28:23
the moments, and the memories. End
28:26
quote. Caru said he has
28:28
a job lined up, though it's one he can
28:30
do on his laptop from his home. In
28:33
fact, in our conversation, Kruth
28:35
said he doesn't leave the house much yet. He
28:39
said he has found a nearby jim where
28:41
he can keep up the two hours a day, six
28:43
days a week regimen he developed in prison.
28:46
Had some roll with John Madden and John
28:49
Let's talk about the trouble of Carolina Panthers.
28:51
He said he weighs two and two pounds,
28:54
only two pounds over his NFL playing
28:56
weight into the end zone touchdown
28:59
Ray correct and sitting there in the
29:01
kitchen, he certainly looked like it, unlike
29:03
players with longer careers. Kruth said
29:06
he had suffered no adverse health effects
29:08
from his time in the NFL, though he
29:10
said he wonders about concussions, and
29:12
that quote, I once got hit so
29:14
hard I couldn't close my eyes. A
29:16
teammate slapped me upside the helmet with
29:18
full force, and my vision was restored.
29:22
My eyelids have been flipped inside
29:24
out end quote.
29:30
On Fridays, he goes to pray at a nearby
29:32
mosque. Karuth converted
29:34
to Islam in prison, and he said
29:36
that he leaves the mosque each time quote
29:39
awestruck, but
29:43
Kruth knows he's a man with a past.
29:46
He wears a black rubber bracelet that his mother
29:48
gave him. On it are the numbers twelve,
29:50
fifteen ninety nine, in ten,
29:52
twenty two eighteen, the
29:55
dates of his incarceration. On the
29:57
other side are the words never
29:59
forget, twists and turns,
30:01
and here
30:04
he said his mother wears a copy of the same
30:06
bracelet. And if Karuth has learned
30:08
anything about social media since his release
30:10
from prison, it's that some people have very
30:12
strong feelings about him. It's only
30:14
a matter of time. He said, before someone
30:17
snaps a photo of him at the grocery store
30:19
or at the gym, and it's all over Facebook
30:22
or Twitter. But one
30:24
day, he said, he hopes to live a more
30:26
normal life. He wants to join
30:28
a bowling league, because once upon
30:31
a time, Karuth was good at that sport too.
30:34
He had his own shoes and a customized
30:36
red ball engraved with the words Sugar Ray
30:39
with sugar spelled s u
30:41
g A. He
30:44
said he still enjoys softball, a sport
30:46
he played recreationally in Charlotte
30:48
and then again in prison. Kruth
30:51
says he loved playing center field partly
30:53
because it was the only time he had so much open
30:55
space to roam. He said
30:57
he's using this time on parole to gauge
31:00
whether or not any of that will be possible
31:02
here. If not, Karuth told
31:04
me he'll make arrangements to leave the country.
31:08
The first shades of normalcy are returning.
31:11
It had been so long since it had been in a car,
31:14
he said. Karruth often got car sick
31:16
in his first few weeks after release. Driving
31:19
again was important to him, but his license
31:21
expired long ago while he was in prison.
31:25
Getting a new one became an early way he's
31:27
had to start over. And I literally
31:29
could see how proud Karuth was when he passed
31:31
the test for his Pennsylvania Learners permit.
31:33
The other day, he texted me a photo
31:35
of himself standing outside in the driving
31:38
snow. He's wearing a bushy
31:40
hat, a heavy coat, and a huge
31:42
grin, holding up his new permit
31:44
and pointing to it, ma'am.
31:48
Where Clearly,
31:51
in our conversation since his release, Kruth
31:54
prefers to talk about now instead
31:56
of then
31:58
said what did it mean?
32:04
He steadfastly refused to discuss
32:06
Sharika Adam's death, saying it
32:08
would do no good for anyone. He
32:11
has never admitted to hiring Van Brett Watkins
32:13
to shoot Sharika, although Karuth's
32:16
lawyer told me in August that Karuth no longer
32:18
feels the jury got the verdict wrong.
32:21
I think in some strange way, the jury
32:23
sort of figured it out
32:27
and sort of compromised
32:29
to a place that you know, even
32:31
Ray can accept. Okay, I'm
32:33
responsible for this situation,
32:36
so I needed to pay a price. I
32:39
told Karuth that I spent several hours in
32:41
prison with Watkins for this podcast,
32:44
and that Watkins told me he wanted Kruth
32:46
dead. What do you feel about Ray
32:48
Kruth now? Karuth
32:52
told me he's aware. He said he didn't
32:54
want to delve into those threats, although
32:56
he is tired of Watkins blaming him
32:58
for making Watkins pulled the trigger in the drive
33:00
by shooting. He's obviously a very
33:03
angry and disturbed man who doesn't
33:05
seem to care too much for me. Karuth wrote,
33:07
if I could tell him one thing, it would
33:10
be that we must all accept responsibility
33:12
for the decisions we make in life. He
33:14
and he alone, is accountable for the situation
33:17
he finds himself in, not me.
33:19
I wish him nothing but inner peace. Kruth
33:23
says he's found that piece himself. He
33:25
wrote to me that quote, I've forgiven
33:28
myself for any and all wrongdoing that
33:30
I've done in the past, and I'm simply
33:32
trying to live my life as peacefully and
33:34
gracefully as I possibly can
33:37
end quote.
33:40
But whether or not his future will ever include
33:42
his disabled son, whether
33:47
or not Karuth will ever have his own Cheerios
33:49
moment with Chancellor Lee is perhaps
33:51
the biggest unknown. For
33:54
years, Sandra had requested visitation
33:57
papers from Karuth so that she could
33:59
bring his son to need him in prison, Kruth
34:01
dragged his feet, and the dynamic
34:04
irritated Sandra. I am not going
34:06
to keep begging a killer to
34:09
want to be part of my grandson's life.
34:11
Shortly before his release, Kruth
34:13
finally did send the papers, but by
34:16
then Sandra and Chancellor Lee had changed
34:18
their minds and decided not to go. Kruth
34:21
told me he would like to be in Chancellor Lee's
34:23
life, but that he's also not going
34:25
to force the issue. He asked
34:27
me to relay that message to Sandra, and
34:29
then he wrote down his phone number so I could tell
34:32
him what she said. They're
34:34
in his kitchen. He was more pleasant than I
34:36
often am when a stranger comes to my door
34:38
wanting something for me. He
34:40
was charming at times. He laughed a
34:42
lot, often at his own expense. I'm
34:45
not sure what I expected, but that wasn't
34:47
it. And see, that's the thing about it. Like when
34:49
I watched shows that tell
34:51
his story. He reminded me of what his friend
34:54
Monique Young told me. He just had
34:56
that type of personality, very
34:58
funny and silly. You know, people may
35:00
not know that, but he's very funny and silly.
35:02
Yet for the rest of his life, Karuth
35:05
will also be a convicted felon who
35:07
served nearly nineteen years in connection
35:09
with Sharika's death. As
35:12
much as he's excited about his second chance,
35:14
Kruth knows the impacts of his actions
35:17
are permanent. Had
35:19
he just been manipulating me or had
35:22
prison really changed him? Was
35:24
he going to become a productive member of society?
35:27
Would he ever see the adams Is And
35:29
how would Saunder react when I told her I had finally
35:31
seen Karuth in person after all these
35:33
years. After
35:36
half an hour, I could tell Karuth was being
35:38
polite but also ready for me to go.
35:41
I thanked Ra Karuth for his time, and
35:43
he sent me on my way with a bottle
35:45
of water from his refrigerator. So
35:49
I just left Rakkruth's house and
35:52
we had a long conversation at
35:54
his kitchen table. He was
35:56
quite surprised to see me With that. I
35:59
headed home. Soon
36:04
after my trip to Pennsylvania, I met
36:06
Sandra and Chancellor Lee at a park near
36:08
their home in Charlotte. Sandra
36:10
and I sat at a picnic table under an awning.
36:13
Chancellor Lee had just gotten picked up from
36:15
school and he decided to stay in the
36:17
car and listen to the radio. I
36:20
hadn't told Sandra that I had gone to see Karuth,
36:22
but she knows how long I've covered this story, and
36:25
she's a smart lady. Interview
36:28
him. You
36:32
were you were than
36:34
the Martin, than you even thought you were. Yes,
36:36
I did, did you good?
36:40
First? I gave Sandra another letter that Van
36:42
Brett Watkins had sent me from prison, this
36:45
one after the hit man had seen the print series
36:47
that accompanied this podcast. On
36:50
one corner of the envelope, the man who
36:52
shot Sharika had drawn a picture of himself
36:54
in prison. In the drawing, he
36:57
hung upside down by shackles
36:59
from a cinder wall. He pinned
37:01
some of his nicknames on the picture too,
37:04
serial killer hit Man
37:07
New York. In the letter,
37:09
he again contrasted his inability
37:11
to forgive Caruth with Sandra's
37:13
ability to move on following her daughter's
37:16
death. Mostly, the letter
37:18
was like every other letter Watkins has sent me
37:20
before Caruth's release, and in that
37:22
way it reinforced how little might
37:24
change for the Adams As now that Chancellor
37:27
Lee's father is a freeman. I really
37:29
see our lives going on just like it
37:31
had been in the past. Ray
37:33
is not in North Carolina. I don't
37:35
think he will becoming to
37:38
North Carolina. Nothing's
37:40
changed with that. So I
37:43
see us going on and discontinuing
37:46
the work that we do advocating
37:48
for peace, you know. And I can
37:50
do that without even saying his name literally,
37:53
not to say literally, not to say
37:55
his name, because I want the same respect.
37:58
I don't think he has any reason
38:01
to be saying my name or
38:04
saying the name of Chancellor Lee Adams,
38:06
because for me, my main
38:09
goal is the Chancellor knows
38:12
nothing but love. So is
38:14
he aware that his father
38:16
is out of prison at this point? He is,
38:18
He is aware that he's out of prison, and
38:20
he knows that he's far away. And
38:23
I've reassured him because he was very
38:25
upset. He was very
38:28
upset by the thought he was coming
38:30
to take him away from me. And
38:32
Chancellor doesn't normally cry.
38:35
He actually cried and
38:38
clung to me so much.
38:40
Did I had to really just reassure him, nobody
38:43
has taken you from me. You're
38:45
not going anywhere. And so, you
38:47
know, I think he's he's settled back
38:49
down into that comfort level. I
38:53
told her that Caruth was holding out hope for a relationship
38:56
with his son and asked her what she thought
38:59
give us time and give us time. I'm
39:01
not saying that I never want
39:04
him to see Chancellor and meet Chancellor.
39:07
I want to see where his head is because
39:09
you know, I'm doing my part, and really
39:11
I want him to just go ahead and live his life
39:14
peacefully. And we're gonna
39:16
live our lives peacefully. We're just
39:18
gonna be concentrating on, you know, maybe
39:20
giving to other people making them feel more
39:23
at ease, because we're kind of old
39:25
pros at this, and you
39:28
know, you never stop missing
39:30
your loved ones. But for
39:32
the families that have just lost
39:35
loved ones, the feelings are really
39:37
wrong. So you know, we're here
39:39
to offer hope that hey,
39:42
life can go on. You can still
39:44
have a smile ministry. You
39:46
know, you can laugh and it's okay
39:49
to move on because you're doing that
39:51
in honor of your loved one. I mean, that's
39:53
an important message, right for people who are listening
39:56
to this, but they feel guilty if they're something
39:58
bad's happened, the death of a love one that I
40:00
can never be happy again, And
40:03
I think they do their loved one a
40:06
greater disservice by doing that, because
40:08
you defined the whole life by that
40:11
moment that they departed rather
40:13
than all the good that they did while they
40:15
were living. And I think that just
40:17
adds to Sharika's legacy,
40:20
because I said, you never really
40:23
know how many people
40:25
you are impacting. But the
40:28
joy that I find in this is that what
40:30
people meant for evil has turned
40:33
out to be really, really good.
40:35
It gave me a voice, It
40:37
catapulted me into my purpose,
40:41
and my life couldn't be more fulfilled.
40:45
The following week, I called Ruth myself
40:48
and told him what Sandra had said, including
40:51
the part about his son crying. During
40:54
the forty one minute phone call, Caruth
40:56
reiterated to me that he would quote never
40:58
in a million years try to separate
41:01
them. Following our
41:03
call, Kruth sent me several emails
41:05
to more fully explain his thoughts
41:07
and said those could be shared. He
41:09
wrote, quote, when it comes
41:12
to Miss Adams and Chancellor, my
41:14
only desire is for true forgiveness
41:16
and a genuine opportunity to be
41:18
a part of my son's life. And
41:20
out of respect for Miss Adams and her feelings
41:23
towards me, I have no plans
41:25
of ever trying to force my way in. I'm
41:27
going to be patient and give her the space
41:29
she rightfully deserves when the
41:31
time is right, I believe that Miss Adams
41:34
will eventually extend an invitation
41:36
for me to have contact with my son, and
41:39
I will eagerly accept. I
41:44
since Karuth is being sincere about
41:46
that, he told me that he's spoken on
41:48
the phone with Ray Jr. His older son,
41:50
whose mother was Kruth's high school sweetheart,
41:53
every day since his release. He
41:56
said that as soon as authorities in Pennsylvania
41:58
will let him travel out of stay, he
42:00
plans to go visit that son. And
42:03
in one of his recent emails, Caruth
42:05
asked me this rhetorical question, which
42:07
I've thought a lot about. Quote
42:10
question for you, and I'm not actually
42:12
looking for a response. Do
42:15
you think that it's possible for a generally
42:17
good person to get him or herself
42:19
involved in a situation as heart
42:22
wrenchingly horrible as the one I
42:24
was in? Or is it your belief
42:26
that such a person could only be cut
42:29
from the worst of molds? End
42:32
quote? I
42:34
suspect listeners of this podcast will
42:36
have their own answers to that. I've
42:39
received so much feedback to these first
42:42
seven chapters, the vast majority
42:44
about Sharika, Sandra and Chancellor
42:46
Lee. The heroes of this complicated
42:49
story. People have told me how
42:51
they admire Sharika's strength, Chancellor
42:54
Lee's determination, and Sandra's
42:56
grace through the darkness
42:58
of nearly unimaginable us. It
43:01
is their life that shines in this story, guiding
43:03
the road ahead for all of us. I'm
43:09
Scott Fowler and this podcast is produced
43:11
by Jeff Signer and Rachel Wise and
43:13
Davin Coburn at McClatchy Studios.
43:16
Find lots more about this case at Charlotte Observer
43:18
dot com slash Caruth and
43:21
for just thirty dollars, subscribe
43:23
now to a full year of The Observer's award
43:25
winning sports coverage at Charlotte
43:27
Observer dot com slash sports
43:29
pass. Thank you to our nonprofit
43:32
partners No More, the National
43:34
Coalition Against Domestic Violence Safe
43:37
Alliance and the Children's Defense
43:39
Fund. Leave us a rating
43:41
and a review on Apple Podcast, and you
43:43
can reach me directly at s Fowler at
43:45
Charlotte Observer dot com.
43:48
Thanks so much for listening, Boo
Podchaser is the ultimate destination for podcast data, search, and discovery. Learn More