DURHAM - The Duke University graduate student found slain in his off-campus apartment in January was shot between the eyes by a killer who fired a gun through a pillow pressed against the victim's face.

The details of Abhijit Mahato's death were revealed Friday in an autopsy report released by the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Mahato, 29, an engineering graduate student from Bengal, India, was found dead Jan. 18, fatally shot during what Durham police have called a citywide robbery spree.

His death is getting renewed attention because one of the suspects arrested in the March 5 shooting death of Eve Carson, the UNC-Chapel Hill student body president, also was charged Thursday in Mahato's killing.

Mahato died, according to the autopsy report, from a single gunshot wound to the head.

"The graduate student was found dead in his apartment with a pillow over his face," the report says. "There is soot surrounding a hole on the pillow. ... The presence of soot on the pillow, along with a few powder particles in the wound track, suggests that the gun was in contact with the pillow, which was held tightly against the face, at the time of the shot."

Police investigators have not said how many times Carson was shot but have said she, too, was shot in the head.

Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr., the 17-year-old arrested Thursday in the Carson case, was also charged with first-degree murder that day in the Mahato case.

The Mahato homicide charge came as a surprise.

In January, shortly after the Duke student was found dead, Durham police charged Stephen Lavance Oates Jr., 19, of 2303 Anthony Drive, Durham, with first-degree murder and a string of robberies.

William Dozia Smith, 20, of Durham and two 14-year-olds whose names were not released because of their ages were also arrested in a string of robberies that investigators linked to the Mahato case.

Durham investigators made no indication to the public in January that they were looking for more suspects.

Lovette was on probation for misdemeanor larceny and breaking and entering convictions when he was charged in the homicide cases.

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