Carruth Arrested

11/24/1998 at 12:00 AM EST

Pro football player Rae Carruth is behind bars in Charlotte, N.C., today, charged with killing his girlfriend. A nationwide search for the Carolina Panthers wide receiver had been launched earlier this week after Carruth failed to turn himself in, despite pleas from his mother. He was arrested Wednesday while hiding in the trunk of a female friend's car in western Tennessee, police said. Carruth was charged with first-degree murder following the death on Tuesday of Cherica Adams, who was 6 1/2 months' pregnant when she was shot four times in her car Nov. 16. The shooting forced doctors to perform an emergency delivery. (The baby was recently removed from the ICU.) If convicted, Carruth, 25, could be sentenced to life in prison or, even, death.