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GameChanger [Music] [Applause] e welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:43
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me is always he just finished eating a chocolate squirrel he is the
00:01:49
captain which will probably give me the chocolate squirts it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for
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listening thanks for telling a friend [Music] today we are drinking Runner by Truman's
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Brewery over in beautiful London England garage grade three and 1 12 bottle caps
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Easy Like Sunday Morning Captain yeah more like cheesy like Sunday morning and this grap beer was brought to us by
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these great kiddos right here first up we have Leah from Liverpool mereside and a big cheers mates to Brandy from
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filling up the fridge for this week's show if you you want to help us out for next week go to True Crim garage.com and
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part check that out at true Crim garage.com in the store page that is enough of the business everybody gather
00:03:29
around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime gets away for the first down
00:03:39
marker what a play by the rookie Ray Karo one police fire I'm made moneg I'm made
00:03:53
moneg fire I believe I've been shot you shot where are you at me five times come
00:03:59
on listen to me listen to me you're on a wireless phone I don't know where you are so tell me where you are man where
00:04:05
are you at at calary church I know Calvary Church you're where talk' you're on Ray
00:04:17
Road where at on Ray Road ma'am ma'am talk to me where you at on Ray Road I don't know okay are you near
00:04:26
Calvary Church I pass it on the left and I kept straight okay ma'am you got to help me to help yourself where are you
00:04:35
at MC Andrew Lex Square Community I'm in front of it MC okay listen to me MC Andrew you said MC Andrew
00:04:47
Square ma'am listen to me MC Andrew Square listen listen to me ma'am you're on Ray Road Square Community okay tell
00:04:58
me one more time l w s x e x w SS e x square you're at westx Square yes okay where are you shot at
00:05:10
ma'am I don't know I was driving you were driving and someone shot you yes did you see the person that shot you I'm
00:05:17
eight months pregnant okay ma'am you're eight months pregnant you've been shot you're at westx Square
00:05:23
Community okay ma'am I'm going to connect you to medic continue to talk to them because ma'am we have to help you
00:05:28
we have to find out where you are stay with me on the [Music] line ma'am stay with me stay with me
00:05:44
keep talking to me ma'am medic she's been shot she's pregnant all I can get out of her is WX
00:05:52
[Music] Square Ray karuth was born on January 20th 1974 in Sacramento California in high school
00:06:10
he is a football star and goes on to play college ball for the Colorado Buffalos and is a first team
00:06:16
All-American in the spring of 1997 the Carolina Panthers were close to being a complete team boasting one of
00:06:24
the NFL's top defenses and an offense led by a promising Young quarterback carry Collins but the Panthers needed a
00:06:32
solid number one wide receiver and they decided to use the number 27 pick in the
00:06:38
draft on speeder Ray kth in his first season Ray caught 44 passes for 545 yards and four touchdowns and he earned
00:06:49
a spot on the NFL's all rookie team for 1997 though one could argue that that would pretty much be the peak of his pro
00:06:58
football career and injuries would become a reoccurring theme for kth in June of 1998 at a pool party ray kth met
00:07:08
sharica Adams a Charlotte Area woman working in real estate as well as an exotic dancer it wasn't until much later
00:07:16
when Ry attended a birthday party for a teammate at the strip club at which Adams worked this is when a relationship
00:07:24
started between the two now there are varying accounts of what this relation ship was later Ray would State on the
00:07:32
record quote we randomly hooked up a handful of times and never made it about anything more than that but according to
00:07:41
friends of sharica after she found out she was pregnant by Ray she was determined to have the baby and even
00:07:48
mentioned she wanted to have a family with kth but for kth this was an issue kth fathered a child with his high
00:07:56
school sweetheart in Sacramento and was paying child support to her now I want to go on the record as in stating I've
00:08:03
seen some reports that say Ry wasn't always good about paying the child support or only paid portions of the
00:08:10
child support yeah big NFL star he doesn't have time to pay child support so with that and other issues with
00:08:18
crout's finances and a slew of football injuries Ray asked sharica to abort the child in 1999 Ray became acquainted with
00:08:27
Van Brett Watkins the security guard at a strip club who began doing odd jobs for kth he's a native of New York
00:08:35
Watkins had a lengthy criminal history serving time in prison for various crimes and he claims to have killed four
00:08:42
people in different states and has got away with all four murders this all prior to meeting karuth at some point
00:08:49
Ray kth offered to pay Watkins to beat up sharica Adams making her abort her baby this conversation led to an even
00:08:58
worse deal Ray karuth would pay Watkins $3,000 up front and then $3,000 after Watkins
00:09:06
killed Shara Adams now Watkins drags his feet on this Ry is offering up ideas ways for Watkins to kill her but Watkins
00:09:15
thinks that many of Ray's plans are too risky it's not so much that he would say
00:09:22
that he has a problem killing her or making this hit it's more of all of Ray's suggestions out to be ways that Watkins
00:09:30
thinks he's going to get caught for this right well this all changed very fast one day in November of
00:09:37
1999 this all changed very fast one day in November of 1999 when sharica Adams was 8 months pregnant with Ray K's Baby
00:09:45
so they're going to be going on a date that night now this is a bit of a break of of the norm for their relationship so
00:09:53
kth has always kind of been seeing sharica but it's always kind of on the DL and sharica wants to make this an
00:10:02
actual relationship she's already decided she's going to have this baby and therefore she wants a relationship
00:10:08
with the baby's father well she's an interesting person cuz one she is Drop Dead Gorgeous on top of that she's this
00:10:17
very kind person but whatever happened to her in her past she is the definition of like an amazing person that doesn't
00:10:27
understand their worth and that she's just kind of willing to put up with nonsense and so here's this football
00:10:34
player yeah he has a lot of money people could say oh she sounds like a gold digger but I don't think that's the case
00:10:42
this guy is treating her like dirt most of the time well and she's a determined individual okay so one thing that I've
00:10:49
seen in her short life is that when she sets her mind to something she achieves it yeah okay and so to be perfectly
00:10:57
clear what it looks like to me here is that we have a situation where she was determined to have the baby raise the
00:11:06
baby with or without Ray kth right okay in an ideal perfect scenario they would form a family and have a future together
00:11:16
and that's what she was hoping for now I have to believe here behind closed doors
00:11:21
Ry is probably telling her what she wants to hear yeah okay I believe so too so this was going to be a big night for
00:11:29
shica and she thinks in a good step forward in their relationship because they're going to go on what her mother
00:11:35
would later refer to a real date they were going to go out on the town together they were going to go to see a
00:11:41
movie together this was the uh Bone Collector movie well and let's just talk about Ry real quick cuz he is not the
00:11:48
most handsome guy he has a kind of has a ugly forehead he's got a five head yeah
00:11:56
he has a five head and but like in one picture he looks like a cone head with a goatee and then
00:12:03
the other picture like the side profile it almost looks like there's a double decker bus mhm on top of his head um but
00:12:12
then in some pictures he looks normal and looks you know decently good-looking guy but it's like some of the pictures
00:12:20
it's like well this guy is fugly well I don't know how Charming he would have been um most of his teammates often say
00:12:28
that he was a bit more of a quiet type they didn't know him real well he kind of stayed in the background a bit but
00:12:36
you got him where he's got you know he went to college he was a football star in college so much so that he's drafted
00:12:41
in the first round of the NFL right so he probably looks like a promising Suitor you know if you're if you're a
00:12:50
female attracted to a a professional football player a professional athlete he's he's athletic he's young he's
00:12:56
possibly going to make a lot of money mhm mhm I think you know so as far as like career-wise goes he's college
00:13:02
educated so but the problem is he seems to have like the Aaron Hernandez syndrome where it's like you you go to
00:13:11
school you do the right things you get drafted to a good team and then you decide that you want to be a badass that
00:13:20
you want to be like a gangster you know what I mean you no you're you're spoton and that's actually how many people
00:13:28
describe Ray kth is someone that he had a good upbringing he went to college he had every Advantage given to him yeah
00:13:36
yet for some reason he had something in him that he wanted to be a bit of a thug
00:13:41
or a bit of a bad boy and he you know he did have other girlfriends that he was stringing along around the same time
00:13:50
that sharica didn't know anything about but again regardless she believes that their
00:13:57
relationship is moving in the the right direction she's 8 months pregnant she's going to be having this baby soon right
00:14:03
and now they're going out on what she is telling her mother is their first real date to go to the movies right well
00:14:10
earlier that same day this is before the date that Ry invited uh sharica on he has Watkins along with two other guys
00:14:20
this is Michael Kennedy and Stanley Abraham they are both all three of them are at his house now Stanley Abraham and
00:14:28
Michael Kennedy are both reported local drug dealers so he's associating himself
00:14:35
with people from let's say the other side of the tracks right okay and we would have a lot of his teammates would
00:14:42
later say we didn't really understand why he was hanging out with these types of characters why he would spend his
00:14:49
time spending time with all these thugs well you're right yeah right so they're all at his house and at some point Ry
00:14:58
now Now by this point he is been talking to Watkins about killing sharica for months yeah six months and he's not done
00:15:06
anything about it Watkins and he's starting to think Ray's starting to think hey this isn't going to get done
00:15:13
so he starts telling Kennedy hey we need to get a gun we need to get this whole plan in action Kennedy
00:15:22
explains to him that he could find a gun for him but he tells Ry I know what you're going to use it for I don't want
00:15:30
anything to do with this I'm not supplying you with a gun right later Kennedy would say that Ray in some
00:15:36
roundabout way kind of threatened Kennedy saying something like this is going to happen no matter what now you
00:15:43
know about it regardless if you're involved or not right anyway long story short Kennedy does go and buy a gun and
00:15:52
this is a 38 revolver and if anybody's seen pictures of this there are pictures of this gun online
00:15:59
it's a if I were like looking for a weapon to defend myself or to use in an attack
00:16:07
this this would not be my first choice this looks like it's okay so it's a silver gun with a black handle but it is
00:16:16
visibly rusted like it it doesn't I would question if it would even operate at this point this guy has a record so
00:16:23
he's taking whatever he can get yeah he has to get a gun illegally Kennedy says that Ry gave him $100
00:16:32
$520 bills to go and purchase this gun he buys the gun and it comes with five bullets so Kennedy he's going to drive
00:16:42
around and he's going to be driving around with Watkins and Abraham in his vehicle for several hours why while Ray
00:16:49
karuth and Adams they go on their date right which the movie ends and the date is winding down just before midnight so
00:16:58
after the movie Rey tells sharica that he wanted to spend the night at her house again something that doesn't
00:17:07
happen or has not happened in this relationship it's bullshitting so at some point they're going to go get his
00:17:13
vehicle they're now driving separate vehicles back to her home kth's car is in front and sharica is following Ray
00:17:22
kth but this is with Kennedy Watkins and Abraham all in Kennedy's car tra in Shere Adams and I'm assuming she doesn't
00:17:31
know that no I it's it's a little tricky because they were at his home earlier that day I don't know if she knew these
00:17:42
individuals I think that Ray's relationship with Watkins was lengthy enough that sharica probably knew of
00:17:52
Watkins so as the three cars traveled along this is odd enough but they traveled along Ray Road this is in
00:18:01
Charlotte North Carolina right they came to a more secluded section of Ray Road there kth stopped his car in front of
00:18:10
sharica Adams's car Kennedy pulled his car up alongside ad Adams's car boxing her in then Watkins opened fire shooting
00:18:20
at sharica until he fired all five of his bullets the two cars with the men driving them sped away leaving sharica
00:18:29
there alone to die but somehow amazingly she was still alive yeah so to be clear
00:18:36
about this Ray stops his car to pin her in preventing her from moving forward right and then so then they come on the
00:18:45
side this is very similar to what people think happened in like the Tupac shooting yes and let's be clear about
00:18:52
this too after the shooting Ray just drives away yeah yeah as does the other vehicle leaving sharica there I mean
00:19:02
she's very badly wounded bleeding profusely and near death somehow months pregnant she using her cell phone she
00:19:10
calls 911 and on that call you can hear sharica telling 911 I've been shot I've been shot she says I was following my
00:19:21
baby's daddy Ray karuth the football player he was in the car in front of me and he slowed down and somebody pulled
00:19:28
up beside me and did this then the medic ask and then where did he go sharica says he just left I think he did it I
00:19:37
don't know what to think somehow she had the strength to hold on and the wherewithal to continually sound her car
00:19:46
horn this is to alert responders to her exact location as they made their way to
00:19:53
the very precise description of her location that she was able to provide them on the phone why at some point
00:19:58
she's saying I'm on this road I'm on this road and the and the dispatcher is going I don't know what you're saying
00:20:06
could you imagine you've been shot you're eight 8 months pregnant you're calling for help and you're and you're
00:20:13
audible but it's not audible to the other person yeah and you're going I'm on this road I'm on this road
00:20:21
what road [ __ ] lady I got to spell it out for you well and the thing is too you know we heard a portion of that 911
00:20:30
call in the trailer yeah I mean you can hear the pain and Agony that sharica is in and she's fighting through that and
00:20:37
she's I mean she's giving them a very precise directions to where she is you know hey this is my location she's
00:20:45
spelling out the name of the road right and but you can also hear the difficulty
00:20:50
during that conversation it's not it's a little tough to discern what's going on
00:20:55
you do have the operator or the medic I know that they switch lines at some point but as they are telling her hey
00:21:02
you are on a mobile phone so we don't know your location you need to tell us where you are and hang on so we can get
00:21:10
people there to help you to save your life right and I cannot I I mean the strength in this young woman to be able
00:21:18
to hold it together and describe exactly where she is because later when they find her you can go back and listen to
00:21:24
the 911 call and You Can Tell She's spot on with where she's saying she is no but
00:21:31
here's where it concerns me a little bit you know Ry slows down she saw that happen she knows what happened she knows
00:21:41
he's responsible she knows he's in on this and if you don't know when he stopped the car and you felt the bullet
00:21:49
you know when he drove away but to me this is a sign that this individual when she goes I don't know
00:21:58
what to think that's that's a direct reflection of I don't know what my worth is well
00:22:05
but it's also I mean she is very clear and very smart to tell the operator I think that he did this and name him
00:22:14
specifically and say what his actions were during during the course of these events well it's also great when she
00:22:21
actually says his name who he plays for and his number yeah yeah I think he was number 89
00:22:28
and she says that and so she's very specific on describing who he is so that the operator and everybody that would
00:22:34
listen to this call in the future would know exactly who this guy is 86 at one point he's 83 well he's 86 he I I
00:22:44
actually think he may have been 89 at this point one thing with Ray kth and I didn't know would get it too much into
00:22:52
it he was very much about his appearance and His Image so so much so that in his
00:22:59
very short professional football career he changed numbers many times and that's
00:23:04
actually not completely unheard of you know a lot of times a guy will show up to a team and somebody else has the
00:23:11
number that they desire for whatever reason and they will offer money to exchange numbers exchange jersey numbers
00:23:18
and Ray kth it was 83 884 86 89 jeez it's look when you have a giant cone head like
00:23:29
that you you got to be worried I mean they probably had to make a special helmet for this dude well Emergency
00:23:36
Services responded to sharica Adams in 12 minutes this is after she dialed 911 sharica Adams was transported to
00:23:44
Carolina's Medical Center where her baby was delivered via emergency cesarian section approximately 80 minutes after
00:23:52
she was shot the initial prognosis was to put it very blunt it was bad bad very bad at best they thought sharica might
00:24:01
somehow survive the shooting but her baby would likely die sharica regained Consciousness approximately 7 hours
00:24:09
after giving birth she couldn't talk but she was able to scribble notes to detectives in order to communicate
00:24:17
regarding the questions they were asking about what had transpired one of the notes that she
00:24:22
wrote was he was driving in front of me and stopped in the road she also wrote and a car pulled up beside me and he
00:24:30
blocked the front and never came back she's obviously talking about Ray kth here as far as her response to the
00:24:37
question of whether kth was involved she Drew only a question mark after a short
00:24:43
bit sharica Adams went back to sleep and never regained Consciousness the baby was named Chancellor Lee and just like
00:24:51
some sort of Miracle he was beginning to improve in spite of doctor's concerns of
00:24:57
brain damage shara's condition however got worse and worse now while this is all going on we have an investigation
00:25:06
that is happening and we have detectives that are looking and talking to Ray karuth because one thing they know and
00:25:13
he does not know is that Shara was able to give his name during the course of the 911 call so they're talking to Ray
00:25:22
kth and they went ahead and they pulled his cell phone records well one thing that's interesting about his cell phone
00:25:29
records is they see a a number on there a phone number on there that they didn't
00:25:34
know who this belonged to yet he had called this number like 150 times in the course of a very short
00:25:40
period of time over the course of a couple months okay so they give him his phone records and they're like you know
00:25:46
who is this number who is this number who does this number belong to and they're going through the the numbers
00:25:51
and Ray skips over that phone number the one that they wanted to know the most about why because what they have is his
00:25:59
cell phone information they could figure out through the uh pings of the cell phone that not only could sharica Adams
00:26:07
verbally state that he was in front of her car around the time that she was shocked they could put his cell phone
00:26:15
with her or near her at the same time and on top of that that day that evening leading up to that shooting he's making
00:26:23
phone calls some of them are to Shri Adams and some of them are to the unknown phone number well yeah and the
00:26:29
unknown phone number is going to a hotel motel Holiday Y Hotel and who is at the
00:26:38
hotel none other than vanan Brett Watkins the gunman yes after they speak with Watkins he's going to give them
00:26:46
other names arrest are going to be made this includes Watkins Abraham Kennedy and Ray kth Ray karuth was able to post
00:26:55
a $3 million bail but but this came with conditions one he was not to leave mecklinburg County and two he was to
00:27:04
turn himself in if either sharica Adams or Chancellor Lee [Music] died this show is sponsored by better
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to answer call us at 1888 [Music] Freedom all right cheers mates cheers now tragically in the early afternoon of
00:29:33
December 14th 1999 sharica Adams died at the age of just 24 after spending almost
00:29:40
a month in a coma now facing charges of first-degree murder Ray kth always the coward fled North Carolina a young woman
00:29:50
named Wendy Cole an acquaintance of kth who was planning to attend Cosmetology School in California agreed greed to
00:29:57
take him with her late that December night kth hid in the trunk of Cole's Toyota Camry after driving through the
00:30:05
night Cole checked into a Best Western hotel along the interstate this was in Tennessee she would eventually call Ray
00:30:15
kar's mother and say hey he's with me we've been traveling he was fleeing the area Ray kth's mother then calls the
00:30:23
bail bondsmen that set bail for Ray karuth this is a $3 million bail yeah all right they posted it for him if he
00:30:32
doesn't show up if he doesn't turn himself in they're going to lose their bail money so they want to find him the
00:30:39
reason that K's mother called them was because she feared that the longer he ran that police would eventually catch
00:30:47
up with him and when they did it might go down in a way that he gets killed during the course of attempting to
00:30:54
arrest him right so the police the FBI the bail bondsmen all these people armed with this information knowing what hotel
00:31:02
that they're staying at in Tennessee they show up to this location they speak with this woman Wendy Cole and God bless
00:31:11
her I know that from the outset from the onset of this she was doing the wrong thing
00:31:17
letting him him flee but we we should be thankful that she did the right thing before it was too late she phones this
00:31:24
thing in they go to the hotel and she still feels some kind of loyalty to Ray you know at this time we he's innocent
00:31:33
until proven guilty not with that forhead and she doesn't outwardly tell the detectives or the FBI exactly where
00:31:41
where Ry is because he's not in the hotel room with her he's still in the trunk of her car parked in the parking
00:31:46
lot so they keep asking her where is Ray well she's hinting to them it takes them
00:31:52
a minute to pick up on it she keeps looking at the keys at the car keys because they actually thought thought
00:31:57
that once that they checked the hotel that Ray was out on foot you know maybe looking for food or just out in the area
00:32:04
right they go to the car and they open up the trunk and they arrest Ray kth without incident Ray had actually been
00:32:11
in the trunk of that vehicle for like 20 hours by this time this leads us to the
00:32:18
trial right and this trial is a very interesting one for many reasons first this was one of the most high-profile
00:32:25
criminal cases in the history of Charlotte North Carolina as well as the history of the NFL Ray K's defense
00:32:33
attorney was David Rudolph now anybody that's seen the staircase knows who David Rudolph is yeah Rudolph's defense
00:32:41
of kth centered around kuruth being caught up in a drug deal with Watkins that had gone wrong not a hired hit to
00:32:49
kill sharica what this means is their story because you have these three individuals
00:32:56
Watkins Abraham Kennedy they're all saying the same thing Watkins was hired to kill sharica Adams that rayaru hired
00:33:05
him to kill this woman to get rid of her and the baby that she was going to have
00:33:11
rayar Ruth's defense is I was using my money as an investment with Watkins we meaning Rey was going to fund the
00:33:21
purchase of a truckload of drugs and that when the truckload was to come in Ray backed out and told Watkins
00:33:29
I don't want to do this it's illegal I'm not paying for this Watkins what they allege is that Watkins killed sharica
00:33:38
Adams in retaliation for not for Ray not paying for those drugs right and there was some weight to this claim because
00:33:48
you have Rudolph's defense that centered around a quote that Watkins had supposedly told a Jailer while they were
00:33:55
waiting trial where he stated if he had just given us the money none of this would have happened you know meaning
00:34:03
that it was Rey's fault if he would have just paid for that truckload of drugs I
00:34:07
wouldn't have had to retaliate and kill sharica Adams yeah so Ray's story is basically this that the night of the
00:34:17
murder when they left the movie Ry was getting nervous that Watkins was going to come after him so he didn't want to
00:34:25
stay at his home so he tells sharica let's go get my car or get your car whoever's car they weren't in we'll ride
00:34:33
separately back to your place I can stay at your place he won't know that I'm there he says that when he saw Watkins
00:34:40
and Kennedy and Abraham in that car pull up that he panicked Ray karuth panicked
00:34:45
and fled the scene at trial Kennedy testified claiming that Ray karuth commissioned Watkins for the hit and
00:34:53
that he had threatened to kill Kennedy if he did not assist with the plot testimonies were also given by Michelle
00:35:00
Wright who had birth kth's first child and then Amber Turner kth's former girlfriend who aborted a pregnancy that
00:35:09
she had via kth the most compelling testimony came from Van Brett Watkins who maintained over the course of two
00:35:16
days that kth had hired him to kill Adams kth for his part never took the stand again let me set this up this is
00:35:24
the shooter this is the guy that pulled the trigger and he is being cross-examined and they're trying to get
00:35:33
him to slip up now the audio is rough it's coming from a VHS tape but I think you'll find it
00:35:40
compelling and uh you've uh you've got a gun there that you said he told you to get down to Atlanta right he did purpose
00:35:53
of that gun according to you is to carry out this shooting right exactly and so you get this call and
00:36:00
you're and you're petrified and so you go over there um because you're so petrified but you don't bring the
00:36:10
gun that you supposedly bought for purposes of this hit right exactly so you're sort of a hit man
00:36:19
without a weapon is that what you are if that's what you want to say well that's
00:36:23
what you were according to you if that's what you I can K you with my hands okay is that what you were I could
00:36:31
kill you with my hands I don't need a gun Mr Watkins again answer okay I didn't need a gun
00:36:40
okay I put I left the gun there and hopes that he would deter him from doing what he
00:36:48
did now you get there he must have been pretty angry at you for not bringing the
00:36:57
gun that he had told you to get wasn't he he's ordering everybody around well heck I mean you show up the Hit Man
00:37:09
without the gun and he made sure I get another excuse me sir I'm still asking a question and this vicious criminal who's
00:37:18
never had as much as a parking ticket in his life that takes a that commits a murder that commits a murder on his
00:37:26
first time out for Crime what was he going to escalate to Mr Watkins yes sir I'm sorry be be quiet
00:37:34
just a minute let him finish the question but again Mr Rudolph I know it's cross-examination don't be
00:37:40
argumentative in your questions yes sir he must have been mighty angry at you to show up at his house for this hit
00:37:52
without the gun wasn't he wasn't he excuse me wasn't wasn't he I just answered you what's your answer yes or no wasn't
00:38:01
he yeah and so did he say well you go on back and you go get that gun cuz I don't
00:38:10
need to be spending another $200 and having Mr Kennedy running all around all night looking for a gun when I didn't
00:38:17
need a gun okay for me to kill somebody I don't need a gun can't you look and see I'm
00:38:26
286 lb okay I would rip you like a rag doll okay is that what you going to do to sharica I could have but I
00:38:39
didn't okay I could have killed her the baby okay that wasn't my beef I didn't kill my wife with the meat CER I
00:38:46
threatened her okay I didn't hit Bridget with the Crowbar I threatened her I was a dog
00:38:54
barking I didn't do nothing I ran after my wife did that to me I left New York packed up took my tools and
00:39:03
said I'm a good-looking man I'll be able to get another woman left went to Atlanta was in the strip club with
00:39:10
hundreds hundreds when I had a problem with the girl I was dealing with Atlanta packed
00:39:15
up went to Charlotte met Bridget when I had a problem with Bridget I packed up went back to Atlanta I ran this is what
00:39:24
I tried to encourage the young man to I told him not to do it for 6 months I avoided him I didn't go ahead and do it
00:39:31
I couldn't do it he forced me to do it he threatened me and the ones I love and it's still not
00:39:44
over so feel it feel the truth okay I come from a city where you can feel it you can tell when someone's selling you
00:39:53
[ __ ] and when somebody's telling the truth feel it or your city's doomed it'll be like New York and
00:40:01
Atlanta within 10 years remember what I said he's representing a person who killed had his baby's mama and baby
00:40:13
contracted out to kill and all the time I'm looking at my girl and baby how did you think I felt I'm Still
00:40:21
Human even though I have a long criminal history I did it all but I'm still human God
00:40:35
forbid I'm done your honor anything par you right about that just did you say to detention officer
00:40:47
Griffin two weeks after you caused that I hope the [ __ ] dies did you say that that's the [ __ ] I was talking
00:40:58
about oh I see r k oh that's the [ __ ] I was referring to who got me into this oh
00:41:07
okay this is the [ __ ] I was referring to oh he didn't stand up I stood up for mine I said I did it I did it because he
00:41:15
made me do it okay he made the other two also do it okay that's your client the [ __ ] at the time time that you made
00:41:27
that statement sharica Adams was fighting for her life right did the captain tell you what
00:41:37
happened that day my question is sharica Adams was fighting for her life wasn't she she was but this this wasn't about
00:41:47
sharq Adams it was about the person who got me involved in all this for 6 months your client did this
00:41:57
this wasn't a one day Affair it was for 6 months he dragged me into something that I didn't want to be involved
00:42:04
with your client now have you ever referred to women as [ __ ] it's not uh it's not uh
00:42:19
something I would do all the time if I did it I did it in Anger right if you were angry at a woman you'd say you
00:42:25
[ __ ] but if a dude acts like a [ __ ] okay like your client the insult doubles I
00:42:34
with a woman there it is who who didn't stand up who didn't say look I did this look I
00:42:43
am sorry I did this I'm going to I'm going to what he said was I'm going to save myself after the murder
00:42:55
uhhuh you're defending this were you were you hoping that Miss Adams died I got a second degree murder charge
00:43:06
the rest of my life in prison if she would have lived I wouldn't have the rest of my
00:43:15
life in prison sir so you could answer that question you you claimed in this statement you made to
00:43:25
the police that Mr kth had threatened you is that right yeah he threatened me and my
00:43:35
family right and I think you told me you were particularly concerned about uh your family right most more so them than
00:43:43
me right cuz you're a pretty big guy right size doesn't have nothing to do with it well you're a lot bigger than he is
00:43:53
right he's a lot more dangerous than I am now no yeah cuz he has a really violent background compared to yours is
00:44:00
that is that it sir he took he took murder as his first charge I okay I never murdered nobody in my business
00:44:07
this was his business yes sir he took murder for the first charge we understand that's your story sir we
00:44:14
understand that's your story to save your life sir save my life my life is still gone save what life it's gone are
00:44:22
you going to be strapped to a gurnie sir either way are you going to be strapped
00:44:26
to a gurnie either way are you going to be strapped to a gurnie are you going to
00:44:31
be strapped to a gurnie I don't know who the intense intensity of that cross examin gets me every time it's like a
00:44:41
pressure cooker yeah I mean he just he's like talking when he's not supposed to talk right he just keeps going and and
00:44:50
he'll tell you he'll let he'll lay out all the ways he's a piece of [ __ ] yeah and Rudolph would later say that from
00:44:58
time to time he was making sure that the baliff was present in the courtroom that
00:45:03
there were law enforcement members present in the courtroom because he was worried that this guy was going to come
00:45:08
over the the stand and come at him right and at one point when you watch this on
00:45:13
TV you could see the jurors they all start leaning back they want to get as far away from Watkins as possible as you
00:45:22
see him amping up and amping up right because all of this footage I believe it was all covered by Court TV well Watkins
00:45:30
is a big dude yeah 64 280 290 and he's mean and he's evil I mean there's no way around it yeah and he'll tell you he'll
00:45:39
tell you that on January 19th 2001 Ray karuth was found guilty of discharging a firearm into an occupied property of
00:45:48
conspiracy to commit murder and using an instrument with intent to destroy an unborn child but not found guilty of
00:45:56
first-degree murder this was a very difficult thing this case was very difficult this trial was very difficult
00:46:03
yeah and the jurors were put in a tough spot here and the reason why that they didn't find him guilty of first degree
00:46:12
murder they said that they wanted to give him second degree murder which ultimately he would end up getting a
00:46:18
longer sentence the problem they had with this was they were instructed at the beginning of the trial that these SE
00:46:25
are the charges that Ray kth faces one of them is first-degree murder if you you can find him guilty of that or
00:46:32
innocent of that however if you find him guilty of I'm sorry innocent of first-degree murder you can't charge him
00:46:40
you know he won't be tried for second deegree murder it's either first-degree murder or not guilty yeah and the reason
00:46:47
why I believe the jurors were put in a tough spot here is they are seeing these other three individuals that were
00:46:53
involved in the murder of sharica they take the stand they get to hear their side of the story their versions
00:47:00
of the events and they're seeing these guys and these guys are getting second deegree
00:47:05
murder charges right specifically Watkins the juror said you know what we had a real problem with seeing Watkins
00:47:12
on the stand knowing he's getting charged with second deegree murder and he pulled the trigger five times and
00:47:17
killed this woman yet this guy that's on trial right in front of us is getting charged with first-degree murder yeah so
00:47:23
it's one of those things that like if you could hop at the DeLorean and go back in time and and restructure this
00:47:28
thing I'm not saying anyone was to fault here Great Scots but if the jurors were
00:47:33
given the opportunity to convict Rey of second deegree murder yeah they would have gave him that without a doubt and
00:47:41
that ended up leading to a shorter sentence than Most Wanted for Ray kth and in fact he was facing the death
00:47:48
penalty if he was going to be convicted of first agreer Ray kth was sentenced to
00:47:54
a period of no less than 8 18 years and 11 months and no more than 24 years and 4 months in prison he was given credit
00:48:01
for the 13 months that he served in prison following December of 1999 towards his sentence as far as Kus
00:48:09
co-conspirators are concerned Kennedy served 11 years in prison before he was released in 2011 and Abraham went to
00:48:16
prison for less than 2 years prior to his released in 2001 Watkins is not slated to be released until 2046 yeah it
00:48:26
doesn't make a lot of sense here I think one on how each each individual was charged mhm but I
00:48:34
think again I think the system sucks because here's somebody with money and money is going to get you a better
00:48:41
defense and and that I think ultimately is why he got a lesser sentence than he deserved I mean I believe everybody
00:48:51
involved not only did they take somebody's life but they because of the complications of birth this person is
00:48:59
affected with these handicaps for the rest of their life yes and and Chancellor Lee right and not only that
00:49:08
but now other family members have to Rally around to support him and help him through these challenges so you know but
00:49:18
again it's if you have some money you get a lighter sentence well let's talk about something here because often in
00:49:26
the cases we cover Captain there are no Heroes you know in in an unsolved case often we are left with no Heroes
00:49:34
sometimes there are heroes this case is weird because we have a lot of Heroes okay obviously we have the law
00:49:41
enforcement individuals that made these arrests that did the you know the hard work deducing what actually happened and
00:49:47
went down that night that this woman was killed we have the EMT for showing up yeah we we got all the First Responders
00:49:54
that we get to hear about often but on the flip side on the reverse side of the coin the the side that's away from all
00:50:02
these monsters that were involved in ending this young woman's life right the victim herself who's no longer with us
00:50:10
sharica is a superstar hero I mean she she was not most people would not have lived through that experience minutes or
00:50:21
hours or even the length that she did but on top of that she was a ble to assist in the investigation to lead
00:50:29
investigators directly to Ray kth and ultimately to give birth to Chancellor Lee yeah Chancellor Lee Another Hero and
00:50:38
we'll get to him in just a second but we have sandre Adams shara's mother this woman is a saint this is this woman I
00:50:46
tell you what I've read and viewed many interviews with this woman yeah if everyone had her heart and her
00:50:55
intelligence this world would be the perfect place to live in she is a saint she took on this this challenge every
00:51:05
child is a challenge yeah but Chancellor Lee had special challenges and she took
00:51:11
on that challenge and she has raised this boy for the whole time that this terrible father who wanted him dead sat
00:51:19
in prison and she has asked nothing of no one along the way she has she had the strength man and she gave that to her
00:51:29
daughter and her daughter passed that along to her son yeah well now you get this five headed monster getting out of
00:51:38
prison and he you know he makes these claims that he wants to be involved in this kid's life like you're responsible
00:51:44
for the death of his mother you're you're responsible for his extra challenges that he faces on a daily basis and your
00:51:55
respons responsible for that and you want to be involved in this kid's life like he a be he was a bigger piece of
00:52:03
[ __ ] than I thought well and I want to talk about Chancellor Lee here for a little bit because he is now um 19 years
00:52:10
old he just recently turned 19 years old yeah and kudos to this young man because
00:52:16
he has done a lot of things that medical professions professionals said he would
00:52:23
never do you know they said he would never walk he would never talk these were the challenges that this little boy
00:52:28
faced because of Ray kth and guess what he talks he walks yes he needs some assistance and he's learning more and
00:52:37
fighting through every day but guess what I like the cut of his jib that's right he's a special individual yeah and
00:52:44
so I just wanted to make sure that through the whole mess of what happened that night we don't we don't lose track
00:52:52
that there are some Heroes here there are some superstars and it's Sandra sharica and Chancellor Lee and like you
00:53:00
said all these years later Ray karuth he gets out of prison at the age of 44 he was released from prison and to this day
00:53:08
he maintains that he did not conspire to kill Shere Adams right but he has publicly stated that he accepts
00:53:15
responsibility for her death I I I scoff at that I laugh at that although kth has
00:53:20
long disputed the words of shara's mother sandre Adams kth followed a February 2018 letter to
00:53:31
Adams and this was published by WBTV this was apologizing for his role in the death of her daughter and he
00:53:39
States I a I'm apologizing for the loss of your daughter I'm apologizing for the
00:53:43
impairment of my son but again never accepting guilt yeah what I think is interesting here Captain is the dynamic
00:53:52
of these individuals and at the soul and heart of who these individuals are Ray kth is a coward he's a runner and for
00:54:03
whatever reason his speed is what led him to the NFL yeah but what we saw time and time again with Ray kth and what we
00:54:10
will continue to see with Ray kth in the future when something when he has a problem when he has an issue when he has
00:54:18
a challenge he runs from it he ran from the birth of his first child he had one of his children
00:54:27
aborted he tried to kill the mother of of RA of Chancellor Lee yeah tried to kill Chancellor Lee and then when he's
00:54:36
due to get arrested he fled the state as well now that he's out of prison yes he
00:54:40
claimed he wanted to be or have some kind of involvement with his son and what we would ultimately see is him turn
00:54:48
away from that as well personally I'm kind of glad that he did I don't trust this guy at all I wouldn't want him any
00:54:55
anywhere near me and I don't want him anywhere near sandre Adams or Chancellor Lee well what's really interesting to me
00:55:02
is he writes this long letter he doesn't really like you said take responsibility
00:55:07
for it but he says he wants to be involved blah blah blah blah blah flippity flu right right but then it's
00:55:16
like a day or two later that he then there's a news statement mean we're we're talking about Pages upon pages in
00:55:23
a letter and his news statement that is uh he's going to respect their wishes and it's probably best for everybody
00:55:34
involved that there is no relationship between him and his son mhm I find that strange I think like you said he's a
00:55:45
coward I I think somebody threatened him I think somebody said you're a piece of
00:55:51
[ __ ] you don't you should never be involved in this kid life and I think somebody stood up for um her family the
00:56:01
grandmother and the son I think somebody stood up for them and said hey you're not going to come around here and if you
00:56:07
do there's going to be trouble and then he said I don't need to be involved on the flip side of the coin what's what's
00:56:15
interesting to me is that we have Ray kth who is a coward a runner a man that flees from any challenge in front of him
00:56:23
real son of a [ __ ] we have three generations of the atoms that when given a challenge they meet at headon they
00:56:31
accept the challenge and they defeat the challenge all three very strong very strong
00:56:40
[Music] individuals I want to send everybody Point them in a direction if they want
00:56:51
to learn more about this case or about the atams or about Ray kth there's an individual who's got an incredible body
00:57:00
of work his name is Scott Fowler he works for the Charlotte Observer he was there from the very beginning of this
00:57:07
whole story he was working in Charlotte for the Observer when they drafted Ray kth so before this whole nightmare
00:57:14
happened he was there covered everything regarding Ray's professional career up to the murder the trial and all the
00:57:23
aftermath and he spent a good deal of time with SRE Adams and with Chancellor Lee Adams so I recommend looking up any
00:57:31
of his articles you can find plenty of them online again that's Scott Fowler his last name spelled f o wle r and he
00:57:40
also did a podcast called karuth so I recommend that you check that out and we will put that on our page at true Crim
00:57:47
garage.com all right thanks so much for listening thanks for telling a friend make sure you check us out all of our
00:57:53
old shows on Stitcher and off the record on Stitcher premium till next week be good be kind and don't
00:58:02
[Music] [Applause] [Music] litter Angie's List is now Angie and we've heard a lot of theories about why I
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