Murder charge dropped against man accused of killing UNC Charlotte student
A murder charge against a man who was accused in 2008 of killing a University of North Carolina at Charlotte student was dropped, according to the Gaston County District Attorney.
Mark Carver was previously serving a life sentence after a jury decided in 2011 that he killed Irina Yarmolenko. The Chapel Hill High School graduate was found strangled next to her car on the banks of the Catawba River. Yarmolenko was 20.
Superior Court Judge Christopher Bragg ruled in 2019 that questions about DNA evidence and ineffective legal representation during Carver's 2011 trial warranted a new trial.
Instead of a new trial, Gaston County District Attorney Travis Page announced Friday that the county dropped the murder charge against Carver.
According to the dismissal posted on Twitter by WSOC Reporter Ken Lemon, Page said there is "no longer sufficient DNA evidence to support the charge."
For the past four years, Carver has been on house arrest awaiting a new trial.
"After years of waiting, the testing is complete and confirms what many have known all along — there is not, and never was, any credible or reliable evidence supporting Mark's, or his cousin Neal's, connection to Ira (sic) Yarmolenko's murder ... Mark Carver finally has his freedom and his name back," a Facebook post from the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence.
Contradictions in DNA evidence
Yarmolenko's body was found on the ground with a ribbon, a bungee cord and a drawstring wrapped around her neck. Carver and his cousin, Neal Cassada, were fishing about 100 yards away, and they were both charged with first-degree murder in her death.
Cassada died of a heart attack before his trial was to begin.
Christine Mumma, executive director of the North Carolina Center for Actual Innocence, challenged Carver's conviction on several fronts, including advances in DNA evidence. For example, the State Crime Lab said it found Carver's DNA in a genetic mixture on Yarmolenko's car and Cassada's DNA in another mixture on her car.
According to court papers filed by the defense attorneys, DNA from items tied around Yarmolenko's neck do not match that of either men. Neither does DNA found under Yarmolenko's fingernails, according to the court papers.
"I didn't do it. I didn't go around the car or near the car," Carver told WRAL News in 2017.
Mumma argued that the DNA evidence from the lab didn't meet the scientific standards updated in April 2010, before Carver's trial began, and that his attorneys would have known that if they had consulted with a forensic scientist.
Mumma believes Carver's DNA was accidentally transferred to the vehicle by investigators after they interviewed him.
"We hope the resolution of his case will serve as an impetus to motivate the State Crime Lab and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Crime Lab to cooperate in the systematic review of all convictions where DNA mixture analysis was used to secure convictions prior to the Labs’ adoption of the national standards for mixture interpretation," The NC Carolina Center on Actual Innocence said in Friday's statement.
Defense: Investigators ignored other leads
Cassada's lawyer, David Phillips, said that another man in the Mecklenburg County Jail confessed to the murder in a letter to a television station, but refused to talk to investigators. The confession was from a 37-year-old man who was locked up May 21 – two weeks after Yarmolenko was killed – on rape charges, Phillips said.
The man said in his letter that he and some friends killed Yarmolenko after they had smoked crack cocaine all night and needed money for more drugs, Phillips said. The man said the thought of the slaying keeps him up at night, according to Phillips.
Investigators believe that Yarmolenko was at the lake to take photos for her photography class. DNA evidence shows someone else was in the car with her, according to Mumma. Evidence from Yarmolenko's car shows that someone started her car at the scene after it fell into an embankment.
The Charlotte Observer reports that Mumma said other witnesses reported seeing a young, Black man running from the scene, soaking wet, carrying a laptop. Another witness claims they saw Yarmolenko's car being driven by a young, stocky white man around the time of her death.
Defense attorneys claim that the state ignored these witness accounts and focused in on Carver and his cousin.
