Laurence Alvin Lovette is in the Durham County jail, his $3.25 million bail a sign of how seriously the justice system treats the murder charges against him.

But before his March 13 arrest on charges of killing a Duke graduate student and the UNC-Chapel Hill student body president, court officials passed up opportunities to detain the 17-year-old. They failed to act despite a history of juvenile and adult arrests that paints a pattern of escalating criminal behavior, according to court and police records and interviews with some of his victims.

Lovette's juvenile crimes were so serious that, at 15, a judge sentenced him to juvenile prison. The N.C. Department of Juvenile Justice could have kept him locked up until age 19 but paroled Lovette after 14 months.

Lovette quickly got into serious trouble again, breaking into a couple's home while they slept. Lovette, then 16, was arrested and charged with three felonies as an adult, as state law requires.

At that point, the juvenile system could have locked up Lovette for violating the conditions of his parole. Instead, it cut him loose and ended its involvement with him.

Lovette's adult file noted that he had been recently released from juvenile prison, yet prosecutors struck a lenient deal: Lovette pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors, was sentenced to two years of probation and left jail Jan. 16. Lovette never met his adult probation officer.

Lovette went on to be charged in a string of serious crimes: the Jan. 18 murder of Duke grad student Abhijit Mahato; a Jan. 29 burglary and car theft in Durham; and a robbery in February. During that time, Lovette was arrested twice. He twice got out, once on a $10,000 bail that guidelines said should have been set at $35,000.

On March 13, Lovette was arrested and charged with murdering Eve Carson, president of the UNC-CH student body.

Eric Zogry, the state juvenile defender, said he couldn't recall a case he handled where a juvenile violated parole and wasn't punished. They were sent back to youth prison or put in detention, said Zogry, who practiced for years in Greensboro. "There was always some sanction."

George Sweat, secretary of the N.C. Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, declined to discuss Lovette's case, saying state law prohibits his department from discussing juvenile matters.

Juvenile records are closed to the public, on the theory that youthful mistakes should not be held against an adult. But state law contains certain exceptions that don't always allow someone to enter the adult system with a clean slate.

Durham District Attorney David Saacks, whose office handled Lovette both in adult and juvenile court, said he reads the law as requiring a judge's order to use juvenile records as a factor in adult court.

"It would stand the purpose of the juvenile code on end if I could go and get every juvenile court record," he said.

Saacks said his office would have treated Lovette more severely in adult court had it been able to use his juvenile record in plea negotiations.

"You can have a long juvenile record and go to adult court and be a virgin defendant," Saacks said.

Death, then troubles

Lovette's run-ins with the law apparently started after the death of his father, an administrator at N.C. Central University who died of a heart attack on Thanksgiving 2003. His first contact with the juvenile justice system was in 2004, according to a department employee who asked not to be named because employees are not allowed to discuss cases.

Alice Wisler, a resident of South Durham, said Lovette broke into her car in April 2006 and snatched her purse and a set of house and car keys. Nearly two weeks later, someone stole her Jeep. Five days later, after she changed locks at her home, someone broke in while the family was sleeping.

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