Jailer Testifies in Carruth Case

Friday, December 22nd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) â€” The man who admitted killing Rae Carruth's girlfriend shot Cherica Adams because he was angry, not because Carruth paid him to attack the woman, a jailer who guarded the defendants testified Friday.

Shirley Riddle, a deputy sergeant with the Mecklenburg County sheriff's office, said Van Brett Watkins told her he shot Adams, who was eight months pregnant, because he was mad at Carruth for backing out of a drug deal.

``It was Rae's fault,'' she said Watkins told her in December 1999. ``If he had just given us the money, this never would have happened.''

Defense attorney David Rudolf said in his opening statement that Watkins killed Adams on his own, not because Carruth paid for a hit in order to avoid having to pay child support.

Carruth, 26, could be sentenced to death if convicted of murdering Adams, who died a month after she was shot. Their child, delivered immediately after the shooting, lives with Adams' mother.

Riddle testified that Watkins told her he snapped when Adams made an obscene gesture at him from her car.

``I just lost it,'' she recalled Watkins saying. ``I lost control and I shot her.''

The trial, which began Oct. 23, went into a holiday recess until Jan. 2 after her testimony.

Riddle also testified she overheard a jailhouse phone conversation in which Watkins tried to get a message to a woman named Candace, warning her not to talk with the police.

The defense maintains he was referring to Candace Smith, Carruth's ex-girlfriend, warning her to keep quiet about the drug deal.

During his two days on the witness stand this week, Watkins was by turns confident, tearful and argumentative, insisting Carruth threatened and badgered him into killing Adams on Nov. 16, 1999.

``I fired one shot, then four more shots: bam, bam, bam, bam,'' he said Thursday. ``She was screaming. She was drowning in her own blood. You could hear a gurgling sound.''

Watkins avoided a possible death sentence by pleading guilty to second-degree murder. He had agreed to testify for the prosecution, but was instead called to the stand by Carruth's defense, trying to shore up its contention that Watkins shot Adams on his own.

Watkins denied the scenario Wednesday.

``He (Carruth) hired me as a hit man,'' Watkins said. ``He hired me to kill Cherica Adams and the baby.''