One of the men charged with killing 2007-08 student body president Eve Marie Carson will not face the death penalty after he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder Monday.
Demario James Atwater pleaded guilty in a hearing to first-degree murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon, first-degree kidnapping, possession of a firearm by convicted felon, felonious larceny and possession of a weapon of mass destruction.
He accepted a state sentence of life in prison without parole in exchange for the state not pursuing the death penalty.
“Today’s outcome is neither adequate nor good, but the court’s acceptance of the guilty plea with a sentence of life in prison without parole is consistent with the wishes of our family,” read a statement on behalf of the Carson family.
Atwater’s co-defendant for the crime, Lawrence Alvin Lovette, has not yet gone to trial but is not eligible for the death penalty because he was 17 at the time of Carson’s death.
“Lovette has the right to an independent determination of the facts of his case,” Myers said. “Any statement made (Monday) doesn’t establish it as judicial fact.”
Because of the North Carolina Felony Murder Rule, prosecutors would not have to prove that Lovette himself killed Carson to convict him of first-degree murder.
If they can prove that he was engaged in any of the felonies Atwater pleaded to, such as kidnapping or felonious larceny, and that Carson’s murder was a result of one of those felonies, then Lovette can be convicted of first-degree murder, regardless of whether he had any plan to kill her.
“Your state of mind killing the person becomes largely irrelevant,” said Tom Maher, executive director of the state’s Office of Indigent Defense Services.
“If you act with another person in the course of committing a robbery and that person commits a murder you may still be responsible because you acted in consort.”
Lovette’s case is greatly different than Atwater’s in that he faces two different murder charges in two different areas — one for Carson’s death and another for Abhijit Mahato, a Duke University graduate student.
“He’s got no reason not to go to trial,” Maher said.
And because Lovette cannot receive the death penalty, he has no reason to accept a plea bargain of life in prison as it is the worst punishment he could receive from going to trial.
While the plea means the public will never get Atwater’s recounting of the story, Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall’s factual basis presentation filled in many details of what the prosecutors believe happened.
Carson was found March 5, 2008 in a neighborhood off East Franklin Street, with five gunshot wounds and wearing a wristband that said “Be True.”
Autopsy doctors determined the wounds were from two different guns, a shotgun and a .25-caliber handgun, Woodall said.
“It seems clear that the defendant is the one who fired the shotgun,” he said.
The shots fired from the handgun were to Carson’s cheek, shoulder, arm and buttock, and would not have been immediately fatal, Woodall said.
The final bullet fired to her right temple was fired from the shotgun, he said.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
