Rae Carruth Convicted in Murder of Pregnant Girlfriend.(Brief Article)

On January 22--on the 28th anniversary of Roe v. Wade--North Carolina Superior Court Judge Charles Lamm sentenced 27-year-old Rae Carruth to a minimum of 18 years and 11 months in prison for his role in the execution-style murder of his pregnant girlfriend. Miraculously, doctors were able to save Cherica Adams's baby.

The Charlotte Observer reported that Carruth, an ex-football player for the Carolina Panthers, showed no emotion.

Carruth escaped the death penalty because the jury of seven men and five women failed to convict him of first-degree murder in the November 16, 1999, slaying of Cherica Adams, who was eight months pregnant. Thanks to an emergency Caesarean, their child, later named Chancellor, survived. But the 24-year-old Ms. Adams died in the hospital a month after having been shot four times.

On January 17, the jury convicted Carruth of conspiracy to commit murder, shooting into an occupied vehicle, and using a gun to try to kill an unborn child [Chancellor]. Judge Lamm sentenced him to serve a term in prison just one year short of the maximum allowed under sentencing guidelines.

Ms. Adams's mother, Saundra Adams, "threw both hands into the air and wept as the judge announced the three guilty verdicts," the Observer reported. "The victim's sister, Jajuana Moonie, sobbed as she leaned on their father."

Prosecutors said that Carruth masterminded the shooting because Ms. Adams wouldn't have an abortion, according to the Observer.

According to the newspaper, several witnesses testified that Carruth opted for killing Cherica after he failed in his first plan: "To have her beaten up so she would have a miscarriage."