The information of the hundreds of callers who gave anonymous tips to help find the men charged with killing former Student Body President Eve Carson will stay secret, a judge ruled today.
The district attorney has documents which detail the conversations, some of which have already been provided to the defense lawyers for the men charged with Carson's killing.
After today's order, the district attorney will hand over only the transcripts which don't identify the tipsters, and all of the tips will remain sealed from public view.
Most of the calls went to the anonymous tip service, Crimestoppers. The government wanted to ensure that the promise of anonymity was kept so that people would continue to use the service, which solves otherwise unsolvable crimes, said District Attorney Jim Woodall.
The defense attorneys wanted to see all the tips to ensure that there weren't other people that could have been arrested for the crime.
The tips were only a fraction of the evidence which led to the arrest of Lawrence Alvin Lovette, 19, and Demario James Atwater, 23, in March 2008. Both men were charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping of Carson.
