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| Monday, January 15 Associated Press | |||
| CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Jurors in former football player Rae
Carruth's murder trial must concentrate on the words of the woman
whose death he's accused of masterminding, a prosecutor said in
closing arguments Monday.
But the defense, which concluded final arguments late Monday,
cited testimony that it said raised reasonable doubt. Judge Charles
Lamm was expected to instruct jurors Tuesday after the prosecution
rebuttal.
Carruth, 26, could get the death penalty if convicted of
murdering Cherica Adams, who was eight months pregnant with his
child when she was shot on Nov. 16, 1999. She died a month later
but the boy, Carruth's second child, survived and lives with Adams'
mother.
Prosecutors contend Carruth, then a receiver for the Carolina
Panthers, arranged the shooting to avoid having to pay child
support.
In a 911 call, the 24-year-old Adams said Carruth's car slowed
down in front of hers before she was shot from another car. In
notes she wrote from her hospital bed, Adams said Carruth stopped
his car, blocking her vehicle, rather than slow down.
"She's the voice saying to you that Carruth did this, he's
guilty," prosecutor Gentry Caudill told jurors as he played a
recording of her call.
"In the last few weeks, I contend we've seen an effort to make
her go away, to disappear," Caudill said.
The defense witnesses were merely diversions "to get your mind
off of the evidence against that man right there, Rae Carruth," he
said.
At one point, Caudill walked over to Adams' parents, Jeff Moonie
and Saundra Adams, and patted them on their backs while criticizing
a defense witness who claimed that they may have encouraged Adams
to implicate Carruth.
Defense attorney David Rudolf argued, however, that testimony in
the trial provided the reasonable doubt jurors need to exonerate
Carruth, especially the testimony of a jailer who said a
co-defendant told her Carruth was not involved.
"Let me say just loud and clear from my heart, Rae Carruth is
innocent of the charges. He is innocent of the charges," Rudolf
said.
Rudolf said Adams was scared, in pain and suffering from massive
internal bleeding when she made the 911 call. "That's the context
in which we have to think about the reliability of how much weight
in a capital murder case we're going to put on the 911 call," he
said.
The judge's instructions limit the jury to either a first-degree
murder conviction or acquittal, with no option for reduced charges
such as second-degree murder. Under North Carolina law, a defendant
can be convicted of first-degree murder if there is premeditation
or if the killing is committed during another felony.
The defense claims Adams was shot by a drug dealer, Van Brett
Watkins, who was angry at Carruth over a drug deal and then became
enraged at Adams when she made an obscene gesture.
Rudolf defended the credibility of Sgt. Shirley Riddle, the
jailer who testified that Watkins told her that he shot Adams.
"The shooting of Cherica Adams was in fact an act of senseless,
mindless rage by Van Brett Watkins," Rudolf said. "It had nothing
to do with Cherica Adams' pregnancy. It had nothing to do with Rae
Carruth hiring anyone to do anything."
He cited Watkins' erratic behavior on the witness stand, saying
it was proof that he could become enraged enough to shoot someone. | ALSO SEE
Carruth closing arguments postponed until Monday | ||
ESPN's Lisa Salters reports from the Rae Curruth trial on a day where closing arguments were heard.