CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- After serving more than 18 years in prison, former Carolina Panther Rae Carruth, who conspired to have his pregnant girlfriend murdered will walk out of prison Monday morning.

It's a chilling story in Charlotte's history involving a baby, a murder, and forgiveness.

Spectrum News will be there when Carruth leaves prison to start his new life. But first, we're taking a look back at a shooting that shocked not just an entire city, but also the nation.

He will turn 19-years-old this coming November and doctors never thought Chancellor Lee Adams would ever walk or talk. He goes by “Lee” and he came into this world horrifically. Deprived of oxygen, he has battled back against cerebral palsy.

His mother, Cherica Adams, made a 911 call November 16, 1999 at 12:31 a.m.

Dispatcher: 911 Baker, you need police fire or medic?”

Cherica: Police. I've been shot!”

C: “I'm 8 months pregnant.”

D: “OK, Ma'am, you're 8 months pregnant, you've been shot, you're at Wessex Square. OK...we have to find out where you are, stay with me on the line!”

That 12-minute recording that's on cassette tape was one of the most damning pieces of evidence in the case that sent the former Carolina Panther to prison for more than 18 years.

MEDIC: “OK. How'd this happen?”

Cherica: “I was following my baby's daddy Rae Carruth, the football player.”

M: “So, you think he did it?”

C: “He slowed down. And, a car pulled up beside me.”

M: “And then shot at you?”

C: “Yes.”

“He feels morally responsible for what happened,” said criminal defense attorney David Rudolf, who represented Carruth at trial. At that time, he had just spoken with Carruth about his plans leading up to his prison release.

“In the ideal world, Rae would very much like to have some sort of a positive relationship with his son,” Rudolf added.

Nearly 19 years after Cherica Adams was shot four times while trailing Carruth down Rea Road near Calvary Church, the prosecutor who tried the case, Gentry Caudill, remembers the motive he presented to the jury as if the trial was happening now.

“She was in his way,” Caudill said as he recounted the prosecution's theory. “He wanted her out of his way. He wanted that child out of his life.”

In the late 90's, on the field, Carruth was a star. Off the field, he was a known ladies man and met real estate agent Cherica Adams in 1999 while she was also working as an exotic dancer.

“How deep was their relationship was not clear,” Caudill said. “We knew, through Saundra Adams, that she [Cherica] had become pregnant by Rae Carruth, that he wanted her to have an abortion.”

The two had an on and off relationship Carruth said in the past the two were not serious. “She was clearly not the only woman in his life,” Caudill added. “He was making a lot of money, first round draft choice for the Carolina Panthers.”

But Caudill says his theory was backed by evidence. Namely, Cherica's 911 call.

C: “He just left.”

M: “Alright, what's his name?”

C: “Rae Carruth. He plays for the Panthers.”

M: “OK, what's his name?”

C: “Rae Carruth?”

M: “Number 89....please help!”

In the midst of her sheer will to survive, Cherica reinforced to 911 operators who she felt was responsible.

D: “Where are you at?

C: “Macandrews. Wessex Square community. I'm in front of it.”

D: “OK. Tell me one more time.”

C: “W-E-S-S-E-X, W-E-S-S-E-X Square!”

After hearing the 911 call, investigators immediately pulled Carruth’s phone records. It led them to three men: Triggerman Van Brett Watkins, getaway driver Michael Kennedy who purchased the gun Watkins used, and Stanley Abraham. Caudill says all eventually confessed to a plot:

“...That Carruth contacted them, told them to follow him and Cherica Adams and he stopped to pull up beside the car," Caudill said.

Carruth and his accomplices were charged with first degree murder, conspiracy, shooting into a car, and trying to kill an unborn baby. While the others took a plea to second degree murder, Carruth initially fled to Tennessee after Cherica died.

“He got a girlfriend of his to help him get out of town and he was later found by law enforcement hiding in her trunk,” Caudill explained.

At trial and to this very day Rae Carruth, who was 25-years-old the day he was arrested and is now 44, has maintained he did not hire someone to kill Cherica Adams. He has said, through his former attorney David Rudolf, it was a matter of him hanging with the wrong people.

“He's very remorseful and feels like he bares responsibility for putting both himself and Cherica into that situation,” Rudolf added.

Nearly two decades later, former prosecutor, retired judge, and now a defense attorney, Gentry Caudill not doubting the facts of the case. “Take Carruth out of the picture she's still alive,” Caudill said.

It was a story of chilling violence that took a life and dramatically impacted another that was just beginning. The person who raised Lee says her daughter, Cherica, fought back against that evil. It's a quality she passed on to her son. “He's really not just surviving, he is thriving,” Saundra Adams, Cherica Adams' mother said.

Cherica clung to life for several weeks, following what happened to her that night along Rea Road in south Charlotte. Her family eventually made the grueling decision to take her off life support.

Sunday at 5 p.m. on Spectrum News we'll have a live report outside the Sampson Correctional Institution where Rae Carruth is spending his final weekend in prison, flashback with the Carruth trial jury foreman.

Our coverage will take a look at why the jury ultimately decided Carruth was not guilty of first degree murder, potentially saving him from the death penalty.

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