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Suspects indicted in death of UNC student
Apr. 1, 2008
Sarah Ovaska - McClatchy NewspapersIssue date: 3/27/08 Section: MCT News
RALEIGH, N.C. _ Wake County, N.C., prosecutors and probation officers restarted a delayed attempt Monday to revoke Demario James Atwater's probation, the same day he and another suspect were indicted in the killing of University of North Carolina student body president Eve Carson.
Atwater, 21, and Laurence Lovette, a 17-year-old Durham youth with a juvenile record, were both indicted Monday by a Orange County, N.C., grand jury and charged with first-degree murder.
Both were under the purview of Triangle-area probation offices on March 5, when Carson's body was found in the middle of a residential Chapel Hill intersection near campus. She was shot multiple times. Chapel Hill police have not said how they think the two suspects came in contact with Carson.
Correction department officials have acknowledged that supervision was lacking, especially in Atwater's case, and plan on releasing a report Wednesday detailing the contact their officers had with Atwater and Lovette.
"There's a lot you'll learn," said Keith Acree, corrections department spokesman.
On Monday, Atwater, of Durham, was brought into a courtroom at the Wake County Public Safety for a 10-minute procedural hearing before visiting Orange Superior Court Judge Carl Fox. Rudy Renfer, a Raleigh lawyer appointed to represent Atwater on the probation violation charge, also was present in a courtroom packed with reporters and cameramen from local media outlets.
Atwater was told he would be back in a Wake courtroom May 1 to discuss the violations further. He said little other than to answer Fox's questions about whether he wanted a court-appointed attorney.
Lovette had been on adult probation a fraction of the time that Atwater was. The teen was put on probation Jan. 16 for a breaking and entering conviction in Durham. Two days later, Duke graduate student Abhijit Mahato was found dead in his Durham apartment. Lovette and one other man have been charged with killing Mahato.
Atwater, 21, and Laurence Lovette, a 17-year-old Durham youth with a juvenile record, were both indicted Monday by a Orange County, N.C., grand jury and charged with first-degree murder.
Both were under the purview of Triangle-area probation offices on March 5, when Carson's body was found in the middle of a residential Chapel Hill intersection near campus. She was shot multiple times. Chapel Hill police have not said how they think the two suspects came in contact with Carson.
Correction department officials have acknowledged that supervision was lacking, especially in Atwater's case, and plan on releasing a report Wednesday detailing the contact their officers had with Atwater and Lovette.
"There's a lot you'll learn," said Keith Acree, corrections department spokesman.
On Monday, Atwater, of Durham, was brought into a courtroom at the Wake County Public Safety for a 10-minute procedural hearing before visiting Orange Superior Court Judge Carl Fox. Rudy Renfer, a Raleigh lawyer appointed to represent Atwater on the probation violation charge, also was present in a courtroom packed with reporters and cameramen from local media outlets.
Atwater was told he would be back in a Wake courtroom May 1 to discuss the violations further. He said little other than to answer Fox's questions about whether he wanted a court-appointed attorney.
Lovette had been on adult probation a fraction of the time that Atwater was. The teen was put on probation Jan. 16 for a breaking and entering conviction in Durham. Two days later, Duke graduate student Abhijit Mahato was found dead in his Durham apartment. Lovette and one other man have been charged with killing Mahato.
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