, Staff Writer
Comment on this story
RALEIGH - Wake prosecutors and probation officers restarted a delayed attempt Monday to revoke Demario James Atwater's probation, the same day he and another suspect were indicted in the killing of Eve Carson, the UNC student body president.Atwater, 21, and Laurence Alvin Lovette, a 17-year-old Durham resident with a juvenile record, were both indicted Monday by an Orange County grand jury on charges of first-degree murder.Both were under the purview of Triangle-area probation offices March 5, when Carson's body was found in the middle of a residential Chapel Hill intersection near campus. She was shot multiple times. Chapel Hill police have not said how they think the two suspects came into contact with Carson.Correction Department officials have acknowledged that supervision was lacking, especially in Atwater's case, and plan to release a report Wednesday detailing the contact their officers had with Atwater and Lovette."There's a lot you'll learn," said Keith Acree, the Correction Department spokesman.On Monday, Atwater, of Durham,was brought into a courtroom at Wake County Public Safety for a 10-minute procedural hearing before visiting Judge Carl Fox of Orange County Superior Court. Rudy Renfer, a Raleigh lawyer appointed to represent Atwater on the probation violation charge, also was present in a courtroom packed with reporters and photographers from local news organizations.Atwater was told 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.Lovette had been on adult probation a fraction of the time that Atwater was. The teen was put on probation Jan. 16 for a breaking and entering conviction in Durham. Two days later, Duke graduate student Abhijit Mahato was found dead in his Durham apartment. Lovette and one other man have been charged with killing Mahato.Because Lovette's juvenile record was not available for public scrutiny during his adult court hearings, he was given a probation sentence that called for only monthly contact with his officer. Atwater's case was bounced among multiple probation officers after a 2005 breaking-and-entering conviction in Wake County. He was not put on the intensive level of probation a judge initially ordered, and a June 2007 conviction in Granville County appeared to have gone unnoticed by his probation officers until November. An arrest warrant for revocation of probation was filed in November, but Atwater wasn't served with it until late February.Atwater came to a court hearing in Wake County on March 3, two days before Carson's death, but a scheduling error caused a postponement until Monday.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 he moved there and a Granville County judge ordered that the file be transferred in June.The maximum of two years that Atwater could face in prison for failing to comply with his probation for the two sentences is minor compared with the penalty he could face 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.Woodall said he hasn't decided whether he'll seek the death penalty."I can't talk about any of that yet," Woodall said.At 17, Lovette is too young to face the death penalty. Woodall set a tentative May 5 hearing to announce his decision in Atwater's case.Leaders in Durham, where both Atwater and Lovette lived, will convene April 11 to discuss the probation system's failure to keep track of the two murder suspects.(Staff writer Jesse James DeConto contributed to this report.)
sarah.ovaska@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-4622
Get $150+ in coupons in every Sunday N&O. Click here for convenient home delivery.
Staff writer Jesse James DeConto contributed to this report.