DURHAM - Robert Guy, head of the state probation system, called for patience Friday so veteran administrators could take stock of systemic problems exposed through the mishandling of the suspects accused of murdering the UNC-Chapel Hill student body president and a Duke University graduate student.

The director of the state division of community corrections was in Durham on Friday to face questions from officials who meet regularly as the Durham Crime Cabinet.

Guy echoed previous complaints about understaffing, high vacancy rates and limited resources in urban probation offices, and he urged Durham leaders to raise their concerns with state legislators.

But a lack of funding and officers were not the only problems exposed by the recent investigation into the handling of Demario Atwater, 21, under the watch of the Wake County probation office, and Laurence Alvin Lovette, 17, assigned to Durham probation in January.

Atwater and Lovette were on probation when Eve Carson, president of the UNC-Chapel Hill student body, was gunned down in a neighborhood near campus on March 5.

Both Atwater and Lovette are accused of first-degree murder in her death. Lovette also is charged with the murder in January of Abhijit Mahato, a Duke University graduate student.

Although Atwater was supposed to be under the tightest watch, he went for more than a year without so much as a call from a probation officer.

"I've not seen any thing like the Atwater case in the 30 years I've been in this job," Guy said.

Their cases have not only exposed management problems in the state probation system, they also have revealed a communications disconnect between the adult and juvenile court systems.

Lovette had an extensive juvenile criminal record, but that was not considered during his first court hearings in the adult system. He was assigned light oversight.

Marcia Morey, a district court judge in Durham who presides over many juvenile cases, urged those attending the meeting Friday to lobby state leaders to look into reform of juvenile offender laws.

As it is now, Morey says, probation officers in the juvenile system are not certain how much information they can share with their counterparts in the adult system.

The juvenile system was set up to give offenders younger than 16 a chance for rehabilitation, treatment and a clean slate that might keep them off a crime-ridden path. For that reason, most juvenile crime records are not public.

But Morey, a district judge who also presides over adult court, says many states have moved to systems where more information is shared about juveniles who are violent offenders.

"This is a systemic problem we've had in our state courts because of our laws," Morey said. "We have two silos, two state court systems, that don't talk to each other."

Morey advocates treating 17- and 18-year-olds as juvenile offenders, a proposal that is under debate by state legislators. North Carolina, New York and Connecticut are the only states that automatically treat 16-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system. Connecticut is rewriting its law, and there's a similar push in North Carolina.

Supporters say the age change would give troubled teens a legal tether to psychologists, alcohol and drug counselors, family members, guardians and others invested in helping them turn their lives around. Judges could decide to close their trials to the public. Their punishments would not include prison time, and records of their misdeeds would largely remain confidential.

In Durham last month, new bail guidelines went into effect as part of a plan to stop Durham County jail doors from revolving as quickly for suspects accused of violent crimes who are charged with additional violent offenses before being tried for the initial charge.

Another factor is high turnover in the Durham probation office. Since 2005, Guy said, 62 employees have left the office. There are 16 vacancies now, he said.

City councilman Eugene Brown said he found it ironic that a state Division of Motor Vehicles worker had been fired a month ago for blowing the whistle on mismanagement in the emissions program, and no employees had lost their job for mishandling the Lovette or Atwater cases.

Chalita Thomas, the probation worker assigned to keep track of Lovette in the adult system, never met with the offender. During that time, court documents show, she had legal troubles of her own, a drunken driving charge.

"We have not fired anybody," Guy responded to Brown. "We've had several resignations, including that young lady."