CHAPEL HILL - The director of the state's probation system has ordered an internal investigation of his office's supervision of the two murder suspects in Eve Carson's death.

Robert Lee Guy, director of the Division of Community Corrections, said he was concerned about why it had taken since June 2007 to begin a revocation of Demario James Atwater's probation. Atwater was convicted in June 2007 of possession of a firearm by a felon in Granville County, but paperwork to revoke his probation was not drawn up by a Wake County-based probation officer until November 2007, and not served until February 20 of this year, Guy said.

Guy said the arrest for a major crime of someone on probation triggers an automatic review of the file, and that he ordered the investigation today after not being satisfied with the results of that review.

"I can't get into a lot of details, but I have questions about the supervision ... and the timing of reporting violations," Guy said. Guy said his concerns about the supervision of the other suspect, 17-year-old Laurence Lovette, were not as serious, but said he still had questions.

N.C. Department of Correction spokesman Keith Acree said Wake County officials had started the process of revoking Atwater's probation. A hearing had been scheduled for March 31.

Durham police early today arrested Lovette, the second suspect in the slaying and charged him also with the death in January of a Duke graduate student.

Lovette surrendered peacefully about 4:16 a.m. after negotiating with police from a home in South Durham.

Police charged Lovette with murder and robbery in the Jan. 18 slaying of Abhijit Mahato and placed him in the Durham County Jail. Authorities do not expect to transport him to Orange County before Friday in connection with Carson's death.

The new charge against Lovette came as a surprise; he had been named Wednesday as a suspect only in the murder of Carson.

Lovette is the second person charged with killing Mahato, 29, who was shot to death in his apartment at 1600 Anderson Street. Police previously charged Stephen Oates, 19, of Anthony Drive with Mahato's slaying, and until today police had not said there were other suspects in the case. Oates also has been charged with more than a dozen armed robberies.

In a news release this morning, Durham police said an anonymous tipster told the county sheriff's office about Lovette's whereabouts. Police tried for more than an hour and a half this morning to establish communication with him before reportedly tossing a telephone into the house at 1914 Cook Road.

An earlier tip led police to the first suspect in Carson's death. Demario James Atwater, 21, of Durham was arrested early Wednesday outside a home at 1007 Rosedale Ave. He later was formally charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of Carson, UNC-Chapel Hill's student body president.

Police did not say who they think fired the shots that killed Carson. But investigators think Lovette is the driver pictured in a pair of security photos of attempts to use Carson's bank card at an ATM.

The spelling of Lovette's name varies in police news releases and other official sources. Chapel Hill police referred to him as Lawrence Alvin Lovett Jr.; Durham police referred to him as Lawrence Alvin Lovette. The State Department of Correction's Web site lists him as Laurence Lovette.

Lovette was convicted in Durham in January on misdemeanor charges of breaking and entering, larceny and trying to break in to a vehicle, according to state records.

Virginia Barbee, a friend of Lovette's family from the Pine Knolls neighborhood in Chapel Hill, said Lovette's mother, Melissa Lovette, and her late husband adopted Laurence.

"The boy just had problems after [his father] died. He was very close to him," Barbee said. "I cannot say that that was a boy that was just bad. He just really fell apart after his adopted father died. [Melissa Lovette] was doing everything she could to just help make a difference, but he just fell apart. His adopted father had just done so much with him and for him that he just couldn't handle it.

"He was a good boy."

Atwater, meanwhile, was being held without bail in the Orange County jail.

Before Wednesday, Atwater's most serious encounters with the law were convictions of felony breaking and entering, and possession of a firearm by a felon. He received three years' probation in 2005 for breaking into a home in Southeast Raleigh. He also was ordered to pay $1,900 in restitution. Atwater stole a cooler and two guns from the home, Raleigh Police Department spokesman Jim Sughrue said.

In 2007, Atwater was convicted in Granville County of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Both Atwater and Lovette dropped out of Durham's Jordan High School — Atwater in 2002 and Lovette last year.

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