Attorney: UNC murder suspects killed Duke student

Durham, N.C. — The attorney for a man charged in last year's shooting death of a Duke University graduate student said Tuesday that he believes the suspects in the slaying of a Chapel Hill college student are responsible for the crime.

Attorney Mark Edwards told Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson Tuesday that would be his argument if his client, Stephen Lavance Oates, goes to trial for the Jan. 18, 2008, death of Abhijit Mahato

"If I get to try this case, I will prosecute both of them for killing Mr. Mahato, and I think I'll convict them when the jury acquits this man," Edwards said.

Durham police charged Oates with first-degree murder and other charges five days after Mahato was found dead inside his apartment near Duke.

Nearly two months later, according to an arrest warrant, Mahato's cell phone helped Durham police also link Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr. By that time, Lovette had been arrested in the March 5, 2008, death of Eve Carson, the student body president at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Police found her body in a neighborhood near the UNC campus while responding to reports of gunshots. Their investigation later found that Lovette and Demario James Atwater allegedly kidnapped her, took her to ATMs to withdraw money and then shot her five times.

Atwater, who faces federal and state charges in Carson's death, has never been charged in Mahato's slaying.

"My suspicion has always been that Mr. Atwater and Mr. Lovette did just like they did in the Eve Carson case," Edwards said.

"Similar fact evidence that shows that the scenario that happened to Mr. Mahato is the exact thing that happened a month and a half later to Eve Carson, and I think the evidence would show the same people are involved in that," he added.

Calls to attorneys for Atwater and Lovette were not immediately returned Tuesday afternoon.

During Tuesday's hearing, Hudson also reduced Oates' bond from $10 million and consolidated it with other charges in the case. He ruled that Oates be held on $1.5 million bond.

Edwards pointed to testimony that Atwater's girlfriend made to investigators that she overheard Lovette say that he and someone called Phillip kidnapped Mahato, forced him to withdraw money from an ATM and then killed him inside his apartment near Duke.

The woman also heard Lovette deny knowing Oates and admitting his involvement in other robberies that coincide with crimes in which Oates is also charged, Edwards said.

"The fact of the matter is, the woman who had great incentive to cover up for Mr. Atwater has no incentive to cover up for Steve Oates, and she says he wasn't involved," Edwards said.

District Attorney Tracey Cline said the state has been able to tie Oates to Mahato’s death with a gun used in the shooting and armed robberies, in which victims have identified Oates as the suspect.

”I think the evidence is clear that there is a tie with Oates and Lovette," she said.

Cline also argued that the woman’s statement was not credible and that she might have had a reason to lie more than a year after the crimes.

"The only circumstance we have changed is that, clearly, an interested witness, someone who now is after the fact, is saying, 'Oh, this conversation occurred,'" she said.

Cline said she intends to have an investigator learn more about the information in the woman's statement

"Like I told Mr. Edwards, if Mr. Oates is innocent, if this evidence tests out to be true, I will call him immediately," she said. "However, presently, nothing has changed other than this statement that has not been corroborated by anybody or anything."