Carson trial jurors could hear about another case in Lovette trial

Jurors, who will be selected starting today, could be allowed to hear about another case related to the shooting of former student body president Eve Carson as Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr. goes to trial.

Judge Allen Baddour ruled Monday during the first steps of Lovette’s trial for Carson’s murder that information from the January 2008 slaying of Duke University graduate student Abhijit Mahato could be admitted in court.

Lovette is charged with murder in both cases.

Karen Bethea-Shields, Lovette’s defense attorney, wanted the Mahato information excluded because she said it was both too different and too prejudicial.

But Baddour said Mahato’s case was similar enough to be brought up during Lovette’s trial and not too biasing to be included in court if it meets trial requirements.

Mahato was a 29-year-old graduate student who was found shot once in the head in his off-campus apartment. Lovette and Stephen Lavance Oates have been charged in the shooting.

Bethea-Shields said witnesses who have testified for the prosecution about the Mahato murder are of questionable reliability and could bias the jury.

“Every last one of these witnesses has a threshold problem,” she said during the motion hearing.

She said some had contradicted their statements, while others made statements under stress or promise of lighter sentences.

Bethea-Shields also said while charges might have some similarities, they also have significant differences — for example, Mahato was shot once while Carson was shot five times.

But Jim Woodall, district attorney for Orange County, said both killings involved college students shot off-campus for the apparent motive of monetary gain.

“It doesn’t have to be bizarrely similar,” he said.

Woodall said the cases just need to be tied enough to make a reasonable person think the same person could have been involved in both crimes.

Carson was found dead in an intersection about a mile off campus. Prosecutors say Lovette and Demario James Atwater, who has already been convicted, abducted Carson from her apartment, drove her in her SUV to withdraw cash from her bank account and then killed her.

In both cases, money was withdrawn from the victim’s ATM and the victims’ cellphones, iPods and other possessions were stolen, Woodall said.

He said investigators believe Mahato might have been taken in a stolen vehicle to an ATM to withdraw cash, possibly creating another connection.

He said that both cases also demonstrate that the killer had a knowledge of guns, which could tie them.

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