Deidra Lane, widow of Slain Carolina Panther, Fred Lane Released From Prison

By Alicia Cruz
Senior writer
Theblackurbantimes

Clad in a large white Sweater, white Pants and gold hoop earrings Deidre Nichole Lane, now 33, walked out of the Women's Prison in Raleigh, N.C. at 9:30 a.m. this morning.
As I arrived, Lane was exiting the prison flanked by her father and eldest daughter. She made no comment to reporters as she left in a dark Blue BMW.
{Photo by John Cox / AP}

After pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter during her trial, Lane was sentenced to nearly eight years but received credit for the nearly three years she spent in jail awaiting trial in November 2003. In total, Lane basically served 6 years jail time.

Lane killed her husband, Fred Lane a running back for the Indianapolis Colts, in their Mecklenburg County (Charlotte) home in July 2000. Lane's attorneys stated that Lane shot her husband in self-defense all edging that Fred Lane was a batterer who beat his wife throughout her pregnancy and cited a complaint that Deidre Lane had made against her husband just three months prior to the murder.

They further claimed that on the day of the shooting, Fred Lane returned to the couples Charlotte home after a trip, enraged and began choking Deidre Lane and yelling, "This baby isn't mine." Deidre Lane had just given birth to her second child a week before the shooting occur ed.

Lane shot her husband twice at close range with a 12-gauge, pump-action shotgun killing him. When police initially arrived at the Lane home, they found the NFL players body just inside the front door, his bags still packed, his keys still in the door lock.

An autopsy declared that the first shot struck Fred Lane's chest blowing his heart out and the second was fired into the back of his head as he lay on the floor. This led authorities to believe that Fred Lane was ambushed as he walked in and that there was no attack. Authorities arrested Deidre Lane and initially charged her with First Degree Murder.

Prosecutors argued that Deidre Lane's motive was to collect on a $5 million life insurance policy after her flagrant spending led to serious financial trouble for the couple or to prevent Fred Lane from reporting her involvement in a 1998 bank robbery.

The bank robbery the prosecutors mentioned occurred in 1998 at a Wachovia Bank in Charlotte where the robber, Deidre Lane, got away with $41,200. FBI Agent David Drew said that a friend of Fred Lane's named Kisha Tennille Hudson told homicide investigators that Fred Lane “told her that Deidre Lane, his wife, had stolen money from a bank in Charlotte, North Carolina. Fred Lane told Hudson that Deidre was afraid the police were after her because she went into a bank, where her friend was a teller, and came out with a bag of money."

Natosha Watson was the teller who was working the morning of July 1, 1998, when the Wachovia robbery occurred and she just happened to be a friend of Deidra Lane. Watson became a suspect and while being questioned by police she confessed to taking part in the robbery. She was arrested and released on $50,000 unsecured bond.

At the time Lane was arrested for murder and later indicted on the bank robbery charge, she had a criminal record that dated back to 1995 when she was charged with attempting to rob a South Carolina credit union. She was arrested, but was allowed to complete a diversionary program. Lane was not convicted.

Fred Lane Sr. told the Charlotte Observer that he has learned to cope with his son’s death.

“My wife and I have prayed about it. I’ve prayed that my son is okay. We feel he’s in heaven,” Fred Lane Sr. told the newspaper. “We’ll always miss him and regret what happened.”


Fred Lane was 24 when he died and had played with the Carolina Panthers from 1997 to 2000 and was the team's all-time leading rusher at the time. Just before his death, he had been traded to the Indianapolis Colts.

In addition to Lane's arrest and convictions, her family has had to deal with another one of their children being arrested and convicted: their son, John Brandon Gary, was arrested and later convicted of bank robbery. He was sentenced to 114 years in prison for five Mecklenburg County bank robberies in 1999 and 2000. His projected release date is April 25, 2101.

Fred Lane played with the Panthers for three years and was the team’s all-time rushing leader before he was traded to the Indianapolis Colts before his death.

Keith Acree, a spokesman for the N.C. Department of Corrections, stated that Deidre Lane was a well-behaved inmate. She had two minor infractions, both occurring in 2004. While Acree declined to comment on Lane's infractions, theblackurbantimes learned that Lane's infractions were No threat contraband and Barter/trade/loan money.

Deidre Lane will be on probation for nine months and is expected to live with her parents and two daughters in Columbia, S.C.