Former NFL player Rae Carruth out of prison after 18 years

Former NFL wide receiver Rae Carruth has been released from prison after serving 18 years for conspiring to murder the mother of his unborn child.

The Carolina Panthers' 1997 first-round draft pick was released Monday from Sampson Correctional Institution in Clinton, North Carolina, after completing his sentence.

Carruth, now 44, was found guilty of orchestrating a plot to kill Cherica Adams on Nov. 16, 1999, in Charlotte, North Carolina, to avoid paying child support. Adams was shot four times while driving her car, but managed to make a 911 call that helped implicate Carruth.

Adams fell into a coma and died less than a month later after the shooting.

The child she was carrying, Chancellor Lee Adams, was delivered by emergency cesarean section but suffers from permanent brain damage and cerebral palsy.

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