RALEIGH - One of two men accused of killing UNC-Chapel Hill student body president Eve Carson appeared in front of a Superior Court judge this morning as Wake prosecutors began a much-delayed attempt to revoke his probation.

Demario James Atwater of Durham was brought into court for a 10-minute procedural hearing before visiting Orange Superior Court Judge Carl Fox. Rudy Renfer, a Raleigh lawyer appointed to represent Atwater on the probation violation charge, also was present.

Atwater was told that he would be back in a Wake courtroom May 1 to discuss the violations further. He said little other than to answer Fox's questions about whether he wanted a court-appointed attorney.

At the time of Carson's killing, Atwater, 21, was free despite the probation violation. His case had been looked at by as many as eight probation officers in three years. Also, Wake County probation officials failed to transfer his file to Durham County after his February 2005 felony conviction for breaking into a Raleigh home.

Before the March 5 slaying, Atwater was scheduled for a probation violation hearing stemming from his guilty plea to a firearms charge that could have landed him in jail. But he was directed to the wrong courtroom, and the hearing was postponed.

The maximum of two years that Atwater could face in prison for failing to comply with his probation is minor compared with the sentence he faces in Carson's death. A first-degree murder conviction would result in life in prison or the death sentence, if Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall opts to seek capital punishment.

Atwater is one of two men charged in Carson's killing. Her body was found in an intersection near campus after she was shot several times. Chapel Hill police haven't said which man they think fired the shots that killed her.

Atwater's co-defendant, Laurence Lovette, 17, also was on probation at the time of Carson's killing.

Lovette never met with his probation officer after a Jan. 16 conviction of breaking and entering in Durham. Lovette and another man also were charged in the Jan. 18 killing of Duke graduate student Abhijit Mahato.

A report on what went wrong in both Atwater's and Lovette's probation cases is expected to be released later this week.