Carruth's Mother Says He's Innocent

Jan. 22 -- The mother of convicted NFL player Rae Carruth said today she believes her son is innocent in the shooting death of his pregnant girlfriend.

A sentencing hearing is set for 11 a.m. today. Carruth could face as many as 20 years in prison.

"I still stand by my son. He is innocent," Theodry Carruth told ABCNEWS this morning. "He still maintains his innocence and where there's hope and prayer he'll continue to fight."

After deliberating for three days, a North Carolina jury acquitted Rae Carruth of first-degree murder on Friday, but found him guilty on three other charges, including discharging a firearm into occupied property, using an instrument to destroy an unborn child and of conspiracy to slay 24-year-old Cherica Adams in November 1999.

The acquittal on the murder charge means Carruth, 26, will avoid the possibility of the death penalty.

His attorneys say they will appeal, a move his mother supports because she believes at least three members of the jury made up their minds prematurely.

"I don't believe those 12 people in the jury were impartial," she said Carruth. "There was one who slept, one who looked out into space the whole time and another who nodded and slept. Those three had made their mind up already."

"I hope the judge takes into account his character, the charitable things he's done and that my son did not in fact try to kill his own baby," said his mother, who helped lead authorities to her son in December 1999 when he fled North Carolina.

"I turned him in to protect him," she said. "I would have turned him in again because it was the right thing to do and Rae knew it was the right thing to do."

Defense Sought to Discredit 911 Call

The jurors returned the unanimous verdict one day after telling the judge they were split on all four charges and were "at an impasse." They were ordered them back to the jury room on Thursday afternoon to deliberate further.

The jury debated whether Carruth was behind the plot to kill Adams, who was eight months pregnant when she was shot four times in the neck and chest while sitting in her car. Before lapsing into a coma, Adams called 911 and told authorities Carruth had been at the scene in a car in front of her. Adams died one month after the attack but her son, Chancellor Adams, was delivered prematurely the night of the shooting and is in the custody of Adams' mother.