Search Warrants Released in Duke Grad Student's Death

DURHAM, N.C. — New search warrants in the case of a slain Duke University graduate student show police arrested one of the suspects based on a tip from a friend.

In a search warrant dated March 13, Durham police said they received information from a reliable source and friend of Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr. indicating he was inside a home at 1914 Cook Road.

"The subject reported that she followed Lovette to this residence and watched as he entered alone," according to a probable cause affidavit. "She advised that she maintained constant visual of this residence until officers arrived."

Lovette, 17, surrendered to police hours after the warrant was issued.

At the time of his arrest, he was wanted on a first-degree murder charge in the March 5 shooting death of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Student Body President Eve Carson.

A few hours after Lovette was detained, police charged him with murder in the Jan. 18 death of Abhijit Mahato, 29, a doctoral student who was found shot to death inside his apartment near the Duke campus.

In a March 24 search warrant for DNA and photographs of Lovette, police said that a search of the crime scene yielded several DNA samples "presumably left on the scene by subjects other than the victim."

Another man, Stephen Oates, 19, of Anthony Drive, is also charged in Mahato's death.