Ex-NFLer Carruth sorry for murder he planned

For the first time in nearly two decades, Rae Carruth is speaking publicly. And he wants to say sorry to the mother of the woman whose death he orchestrated.

Carruth, a former Carolina Panthers wide re- ceiver, sent a handwritten, 16-page letter to a news station and granted an interview because it’s the only way he thinks he can apologize, the only way he thinks he has a chance to have a relationship with his son.

Carruth has not been heard from since 2001, when he was convicted of conspiring to murder his seven-months-pregnant girlfriend, Cherica Adams, and was sentenced to 18 to 24 years in prison.

Seventeen years later, the now 44-year-old is scheduled to be released in the fall. His son, Chancellor Lee Adams, was born with cerebral palsy and is being taken care of by Cherica’s mother, Saundra Adams. Carruth said he has written to Saundra before and received no response. So he released the open letter to WBTV in Charlotte.

“I’m apologizing for the loss of her daughter,” Carruth told the station, not going into detail but taking some responsibility. “I’m apologizing for the impairment of my son. I feel responsible for everything that happened. And I just want her to know that truly I am sorry for everything.”

Everything, police say, is arranging a murder in which he hired a hitman to shoot Cherica, pregnant with Chancellor, to get out of paying child support. Cherica was shot four times on Nov. 16, 1999, and rushed to the hospital, where she would later die. Chancellor was born via an emergency Caesarean section, and is now 18.