Log in to WRAL.com with one click using your favorite social network:
OR
Log in using your WRAL.com account:



Wrong email/password combination.

Forgot password?

Register with WRAL.com using your favorite social network:
OR
Register for a WRAL.com account using our web form.

Login Options

1:42 a.m. • 2-11-12

Weather Forecast for Raleigh

  • Today: Mostly Cloudy.
    • Hi: 52° F
  • Sun: Clear.
    • Hi: 43° F
  • Mon: Mostly Cloudy.
    • Hi: 50° F

Other Locations

> 7 Day Forecast

Doppler Image

Marketplace Links

Social Links

Main Menu

Suspects Indicted in UNC Student Leader's Death


e-mail print friendly
Atwater_Lovette
Atwater_Lovette

An Orange County grand jury on Monday indicted two men for the shooting death of Eve Marie Carson, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's student body president.

Demario James Atwater, 21, and Laurence Alvin Lovette, 17, both of Durham, were indicted on a charge of first-degree murder.

Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall said a hearing is scheduled for May 5 to determine whether to pursue the death penalty against Atwater.

Woodall said he has not decided whether to try the case as a capital case, but that state statute requires the hearing to be set 45 days from indictment.

Last week, a Durham County grand jury indicted Lovette on a murder charge in the Jan. 18 death of Abhijit Mahato, a 29-year-old Duke University graduate student.

Lovette cannot be executed. A 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibits executing anyone who was under 18 at the time of a crime for which an adult could be executed. The harshest punishment he could face, if convicted of either crime, would be life in prison.

While responding to reports of gunfire, Chapel Hill police found Carson, 22, around 5 a.m. March 5 about a half-mile from the UNC campus. Her body was identified the next day. According to a stolen-vehicle report, she had been shot in the head.

RELATED TOPICS: Orange County, Abhijit Mahato, Durham County, Durham, Death Penalty, Duke University, Supreme Court

e-mail print friendly

42 Comments


WRAL.com welcomes your comments on this story. All comments are moderated prior to publication based on our posting guidelines. Please review them prior to posting and if your message is not approved.

View Comments VIEW ALL 42 COMMENTS

This story is closed for comments. Comments on WRAL.com news stories are accepted and moderated between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Latest Comments
Killing them will not bring back the late Eve Carson. Giving them (both) life in prison without parole would kill them.

I hope both of these guys have a run in with a BIG guy named "Bubba" while they spend the rest of their miserable worthless lives in prison. THat makes it a little easier for me to swallow with one of them getting away from the death penalty.

If lovette wants to act like an adult then he should be charged like and adult. Or bring back the chain gangs and make them work for free like in the old days, like the moive cool hand luke.

Why don't we build more prisons and contract the prisoners out to companies and make them manufacture something while they are behind bars. Allow them to get paid a fair wage and in return that wage can help cover their expenses so that they REALLY pay their debt to society.

NO FREE RIDE PERIOD!

One of these murderers will get the death penalty. If he doesn't, maybe people will wake up and stop being so complacent about the liberal mentality that is already used in our correction and legal system. Demand that the death penalty moratorium be removed.

"ptahandatum.....without reading through, or guessing to which comments you are responding, let me just say that NOT everything that is different from what you believe his "hate" or "hatred." You frequently label anything you don't like as hatred, but that's just your ignorance showing through."

ptahandatum - Let's take that one step further - it's not necessarily things you don't like - it's things you are not intelligent enough to understand. It is a bit complex so take your own advice - READ.

View Comments VIEW ALL 42 COMMENTS
Report It

Multimedia

Click Here