Watkins passed away in prison. It was confirmed by officials that he passed away naturally. When veteran crime writer Glenn Counts caught up with Cherica’s mother Saundra Adams, she was shocked to learn of Watkins’s demise.
Following his conviction, Watkins acknowledged his regret and that he thinks about Chancellor and Saundra almost daily in an interview with Jim Bradley.
Watkins stated, “Every day I think about the wrong that I did, and I think about Mrs. Adams, the Chancellor, and Cherica Adams.”
Saundra Adams thinks Watkins was honest when he told Counts that he had contacted her throughout the previous year and invited her to come see him.
Saundra Adams stated he sent her the visitation papers, and she prayed about it and decided against it. She felt like she had a lot to ask him, but none of the inquiries would make her daughter come back.
On November 16, 1999, in the vicinity of Carruth’s residence in Charlotte, North Carolina, real estate agent Cherica Adams, with whom he had been romantically involved, was shot four times with a.357 calibre Charter Arms revolver by Van Brett Watkins Sr., a nightclub manager and colleague of Carruth.
Adams was able to get on the phone with 911, telling them that Carruth had pulled over in front of her car, that a second car had passed by, and that the passenger had shot her. Then Carruth departed by car from the location.
At the time, Adams was eight months along in her pregnancy with Carruth’s child. Shortly following her hospital admission, she lapsed into unconsciousness.
The infant was born via emergency caesarean section, performed by doctors. Going to the police, Carruth secured a $3 million bond with the understanding that he would turn himself in if Adams or the baby passed away.
On December 14, 1999, Adams passed away. Chancellor Lee Adams, the infant, lived, but his 70-minute oxygen deprivation before birth left him with cerebral palsy and irreversible brain damage.
Chancellor Lee, who was 21 years old, graduated from Vance High School in 2021.
After Adams’ death, Carruth fled right away, but on December 15 in West Tennessee, he was apprehended after being discovered hiding in a car’s trunk outside of a motel in Parkers Crossroads.
Along with $3,900 in cash, bottles of his urine, and extra clothing, the trunk also had sweet bars and a phone.
Citing a morality provision in his contract, the Panthers waived him on December 16. On December 17, the NFL suspended him indefinitely.
Prosecutors argued during the trial that Watkins and other individuals were recruited by Carruth to kill Adams due to her unwillingness to abort their child.
David Rudolf, Carruth’s attorney, alleged that Carruth was involved in a botched narcotics deal.
They said that on the evening of the killing, Watkins shot Adams out of a sudden passion after she “flipped him off” for asking where Carruth was after he had declined to pay the heroin trade.
Carruth was convicted of shooting into an occupied car, using an explosive device, and conspiring to commit murder.
He avoided a potential death after it was decided that he was not guilty of first-degree murder. Carruth received a prison term ranging from 18 years and 11 months to 24 years and 4 months.
For the murder of Cherica Adams, Van Brett Watkins Sr. received a prison sentence of at least 40 years, 8 months, and up to 50 years, 8 months.
His previous home was Scotland CI in Laurinburg, North Carolina. In 2018, Carruth apologised in writing to Cherica Adams’ mother, Saundra Adams, through WBTV in Charlotte, North Carolina, for claiming that she had been lying about him in interviews for years.
On October 22, 2018, Carruth was freed from prison after serving 18 years. He shifted to Pennsylvania following his release.
