|
|
 |
Sport Sections |
|
|
| | |||
| Thursday, January 4 Associated Press | |||
| CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A jailer who bolstered Rae Carruth's
claim that his girlfriend was shot over a botched drug deal made an
unusual visit to Carruth's cell, another jail employee testified
Thursday.
Kimberly Young, a detention officer in the Mecklenburg County
Jail, was the first rebuttal witness for prosecutors who say
Carruth arranged the shooting of Cherica Adams, his pregnant
girlfriend.
Young said she worked on the second floor of the jail, where
Carruth was being held in solitary confinement, in December 1999.
Sgt. Shirley Riddle came to the floor one day and told Young to
take a break because "she needed to talk to Rae," Young
testified. The two spent about 15 to 20 minutes together, she said.
Prosecutors brought in Young to bring doubts about Riddle's
integrity.
Testifying for the defense, Riddle told the jury that admitted
triggerman and co-defendant Van Brett Watkins told her in a
jailhouse confession that he shot Adams in a rage, and not as part
of the murder-for-hire plot hatched by Carruth.
Riddle, who was not in charge of that floor at the time, did not
sign her name into the work log book to indicate she visited
Carruth, Young said.
Young said the incident was so unusual that she reported it to
another superior officer, but did not file a written report.
Major Felicia McAdoo, commander of the Mecklenburg County Jail,
testified that she did not have a lot of regard for Riddle's
character.
"I do believe that she does have some instances in which she is
not truthful," she told jurors.
McAdoo said she reprimanded Riddle when she learned that she was
personally escorting Carruth around the jail.
"I told her that was not her job," McAdoo said. "She said she
understood that."
During cross-examination, defense attorney David Rudolf asked
her why she kept someone on her staff who she felt was not
trustworthy.
"Sgt. Riddle has been employed for nine years and she was
promoted to sergeant," he said. "Do you generally do that with
people who are liars?"
McAdoo responded that evaluating the staff was not part of her
responsibilities.
McAdoo also did not dispute Rudolf's claims that Riddle had
received high marks on her most recent job evaluation or that she
had uncovered information about criminal activities inside the jail
ranging from escape plots to drug-smuggling schemes.
The testimony by Young and McAdoo was meant to impeach Riddle,
who testified in December that Watkins confided in her that the
shooting was not a contract killing.
The defense claims Adams was killed because Carruth backed out
of a drug deal, not because Carruth wanted to get out of paying
child support for their unborn son.
Adams, who was shot Nov. 16, 1999, died a month later. Their son
survived and now lives with Adams' mother.
Carruth, 26, could face the death penalty if convicted of
first-degree murder.
Watkins was one of two co-defendants who testified Carruth
hatched the plan to kill Adams and blocked her car with his vehicle
so Watkins could shoot her.
The final witness Thursday was Donald Kim, who told jurors
Carruth swore at him and physically attacked him after he asked the
former football player to move his vehicle out of his garage at the
apartment complex where they both lived in 1998.
"I was shocked," Kim said. "I just wanted him to move the
car."
He acknowledged during cross examination that he never filed a
police report. He also admitted he was angry with Carruth because
of similar incidents in the past.
"It was getting to be an old issue," Kim said. | ALSO SEE
Carruth does not take stand as defense rests | ||