Richie Adams

Richie Adams (March 15, 1963 - February 19, 2026) was an American former basketball player known for his college basketball career at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) as well as for his manslaughter conviction of a 15-year-old girl later in his life.

Early life Adams grew up in the Andrew Jackson Housing Projects in the Bronx, New York. At age 13 he discovered his love for basketball after flying to Hawaii to play in a tournament. He played at the Entertainer's Basketball Classic at Rucker Park.

College career After earning his GED from a Massachusetts junior college, Adams enrolled at UNLV to play for the Jerry Tarkanian-coached Runnin' Rebels basketball team. A center, he was known as an athletic player with great leaping ability who rose to prominence out of seemingly nowhere. In one game against Utah State, Adams scored 37 points and grabbed 18 rebounds, and it was speculated that during Adams' prime he could out-rebound Dennis Rodman. Adams never made the final roster, getting cut in training camp, and his professional career consisted of a short stint in the United States Basketball League as well as a select few games in South America. He was on a self-destructive path throughout college and that continued even after he was drafted by an NBA team; one day after Adams was chosen by the Bullets, he was arrested for car theft in the Bronx. He was charged with holding up a woman in Manhattan, for purse-snatching, and again for another car theft. Adams used drugs heavily (specifically cocaine) and spent most of his earned basketball money on them.

In 1996, Adams was arrested for manslaughter after Norma Rodriguez, a 15-year-old high school girl, was found dead from a violent stomping on October 15 of the same year. Authorities traced Adams to the crime, and two years later he was convicted of manslaughter and given a 25-year jail sentence. He began originally serving his sentence in Rikers Island Prison before getting moved to upstate New York. His sentence was not completed until 2023.