Authorities arranging Carruth's return

Professional American football player Rae Carruth was behind bars again on Friday, facing a murder charge in the shooting of his pregnant girlfriend, as authorities focused on arranging his return to North Carolina. The victim's family arranged for her funeral.

Professional American football player Rae Carruth was behind bars again on Friday, facing a murder charge in the shooting of his pregnant girlfriend, as authorities focused on arranging his return to North Carolina. The victim's family arranged for her funeral.

Federal authorities said on Friday that they were dropping an unlawful flight warrant naming Carruth, captured on Wednesday in Wildersville, Tennessee, meaning Charlotte-Mecklenburg police can pick him up on a state murder warrant.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Captain Sean Mulhall said his department first must get clearance from a Tennessee state judge to transport Carruth.

Authorities want to bring the former Carolina Panthers wide receiver back to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg jail to await trial on charges that he led a plot to murder Cherica Adams, his pregnant girlfriend.

Adams, 24, died on Tuesday, 28 days after she was struck in the neck and chest by four bullets fired from a passing car as she drove through a south Charlotte neighbourhood. Prosecutors have said Carruth was in a car near the shooting, and three other men were in another vehicle talking with him by cell phone.

Adams' funeral was scheduled for Saturday at Victory Christian Center.

More than six months' pregnant, Adams gave birth to a premature baby boy by Caesarean delivery. The baby, Chancellor, has been steadily improving since.

Carruth and William Edward Watkins, 44, Michael Eugene Kennedy, 24, and Stanley Drew "Boss" Abraham, 19, face first-degree murder and other charges and are being held without bond. Prosecutors said they intend to seek the death penalty.

Carruth was arrested on November 25 and then released on a $3 million bond that required him to surrender immediately if Adams were to die. When she died, however, Carruth fled, ignoring repeated pleas from family, friends and his lawyer to surrender.

Federal agents found him on Wednesday hiding in the trunk of a car in a motel parking lot in western Tennessee.