Carruth and others ordered to pay $5.8 million

[TexasStooge]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Court TV) — Former Carolina Panther Rae Carruth and three men convicted of conspiring to kill Carruth's girlfriend were ordered last week to pay nearly $5.8 million in damages to her estate.

Saundra Adams' daughter, Cherica Adams, was eight months pregnant with Carruth's child when she was shot in November 1999. She died about a month later. Her baby survived but has cerebral palsy.

Mecklenburg Superior Court Judge Yvonne Mims Evans awarded Saundra Adams all the monetary damages sought in the wrongful death suit against Carruth and the others responsible for the fatal shooting.

But it is unlikely that she will receive any of the money in the near future.

Carruth, 29, is serving at least 18 years in prison for his role in the murder. Two of the three other men convicted for their roles in the slaying — Van Brett Watkins and Michael Kennedy — also are in prison. The third co-defendant, Stanley Drew Abraham, who is out on probation, told the court that he is unemployed.

Carruth was acquitted of first-degree murder in January 2001 but was found guilty of conspiring to murder Adams, shooting into her occupied vehicle and using a gun to try to kill her unborn child. He is appealing the verdict.

Watkins, the trigger man, and Kennedy, who drove the attack car, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Watkins was sentenced to at least 40 years in prison. Kennedy was sentenced to at least 11 years and eight months in prison.

Abraham, 23, spent 18 months behind bars. He pleaded guilty to two charges: accessory after the fact of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, and accessory after the fact to shooting into an occupied vehicle.