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(03/05/10 5:27am)
It’s because of the way she lived and the way she was killed that Eve Carson’s name is accompanied by a gut reaction.But in a couple of years, all the students who can remember the former student body president’s voice, presence and friendship on campus will have graduated.She will join a class of students who died during their time on campus and are memorialized through scholarships, buildings, plaques and traditions.When that time comes, it’s not important that her name resonate the same way, friends say. Because to convey what happened and what she meant requires a sit-down conversation.Instead, the things that now memorialize her — the scholarship for juniors, a new garden, a month dedicated to making every moment count — are designed to speak for themselves.Carson’s companyOn this day in 2008, students heard about a college-aged woman shot to death off East Franklin Street. Carson’s roommates couldn’t get in touch with her, and the next day the body was identified as hers. Thousands gathered in Polk Place to mourn the loss.The impact was tangible.“I regret never telling her how much I admired her,” said junior Katherine Novinski.Novinski, who will be the next director of the Eve Marie Carson Scholarship, is a leader in an effort to ensure Carson’s legacy continues to be a part of campus life.Whether she realizes it or not, Novinski is joining a small group in the University community of people carrying memories of other student deaths.Four scholarships in the College of Arts and Sciences are in the name of people who died while they were students at UNC.Some staff at the Arts and Sciences Foundation keep in touch with the parents of Benjamin Woodruff, a student who died May 12, 1996 in a fire at the Phi Gamma Delta house. A Carolina Scholars scholarship is in his name.There’s also a Carolina Scholars fund in the name of Kevin Reichardt, one of two people shot in January 1995 by Wendell Williamson, a student who opened fire on Henderson Street.John Blanchard of the athletic department still remembers vividly the death of Jason Ray, a student who played Rameses and was killed in a car accident while away for a 2007 men’s basketball game.“His mother has said to me numerous times, ‘I just don’t want Jason to be forgotten,’” Blanchard said.A spirit award is offered each year in his name. But it’s hard, as it will be hard with Carson’s memory, as fewer and fewer students on campus remember him.“There’s just a natural change in the intimacy in which people knew him,” said Blanchard, whose daughter was a close friend of Ray’s. “I’m not sure how to handle that other than just to continue to talk to them.”Carson continuedMany of the things that now memorialize Carson were her ideas — and that’s what differentiates the tribute, said Thomas Edwards, director of the Eve Marie Carson Scholarship.“Nothing has been memorialized in this way,” Assistant Dean of Students Melinda Manning said.Carson helped shape the values of the University as the University shaped her, Novinski said.“The things that have been started in her honor and to finish her legacy are things that are going to be here,” she said. “People will create new memories through those avenues.”Novinski remembers hoping Carson’s idea for a scholarship for juniors could materialize despite her death. The scholarship is now in her name.“There have been people who tell me, pessimistically, that this is all going to fade away,” Edwards said. “I consider it my responsibility to carry this forward.”Carson got Edwards into student government and made sure he applied for a committee position, he remembers.When Edwards works on the scholarship, sometimes he needs to separate himself from the emotion, he said.“Sometimes you have to take a day off and just not do anything that relates to it,” he said.Whoever takes over in a couple years might not need those breaks. At that point, it comes down to stories.All freshman Allison Rowland knows of Carson is what her resident advisor told her in an e-mail this week, she said. The e-mail explained that March would have two weeks titled “Every Moment Counts” in recognition of the way Carson lived.“She seems like a nice person,” Rowland said. “I feel like I should know more about it.”Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
(03/02/10 5:04am)
The four students who lived at 506 Church St. always had friends over.So it’s a wonder only one person was inside when the house caught on fire at 3 p.m. Monday.Junior Austin Monroe got out in time, uninjured. He was about to take a shower when he heard glass breaking, then opened the door to find the front part of his house engulfed in flames.He called the fire department as he escaped out the back. He had his phone, his ChapStick, his sweat pants and his T-shirt, and as he watched the roof collapse, it became clear that’s all that was salvaged.The Chapel Hill Fire Department arrived within three minutes, but after flames and fire hoses, the house was a charred skeleton. The department did not determine a cause, but said the fire likely started in the attic.LeQuentin Wilson, 17, watched from his window a couple houses away as black smoke billowed. He remembers when he was about 7 years old, when Jeff Galloway built the house. Wilson would sometimes help mow the lawn. He walked through the lawn on his way home Sunday night.“When I saw it, I was shaking,” Wilson said.Galloway came to the scene, too. He still owns the house, and rented it to the students. Some recontracted for next year.“The house is a house. The house can burn to the ground. I’m just glad they’re okay,” he said.The students had many offers of places to stay for the night. None of them have renters insurance, they said. They supported each other and tried to keep from crying again as they looked at what remained.“Charred. Cajun. Does it look Cajun right now?” said senior Jessi Harris, who’s lived there for two years.Her friend, Jamila Reddy, who parks there, reminded her of the new futon, the Mario video game, the new groceries.“I’m sure Trader Joe’s, if you told them your house burnt to a crisp, they would give you the groceries,” she said.Resident Sheina Taub thought of all her lost art, all of the sketch books she’d ever drawn in. She wrote songs in her head and thought of how everything else seems so trivial when your house burns down.“It’s kind of a relief,” she said. “I thought I was having a hard time. But I wasn’t. It was just life.”Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(02/23/10 5:30am)
Potential jurors answered questionnaires Monday to determine their eligibility to serve at the trial of one of two men charged with killing former Student Body President Eve Carson.It’s the first step in selecting the jury to examine Demario James Atwater, 23, who faces federal carjacking and firearm use charges resulting in Carson’s death — charges that could result in the death penalty if he is convicted. About 170 potential jurors will be quizzed each day this week.But there’s no guarantee that those who answer questions this week at the federal court in Winston-Salem will move to the next stage of jury selection. That’s mostly because the judge still has not decided whether the trial, set to begin in May, will take place in North Carolina.“In order to have a speedy trial, you probably have to get everything situated pretty carefully and quickly,” said UNC constitutional law professor Michael Gerhardt.The judge has until the beginning of the trial to decide whether to honor the defense’s request to move it out of state, said Lynne Klauer, spokeswoman for the Middle District of North Carolina, which is prosecuting Atwater.The defense has stated that 80 percent of North Carolinians know about the case, and more than half think Atwater is guilty.They argue that a trial in North Carolina would not be fair.If the judge does decide to move the trial, the jury selection process will start anew. The judge has not announced when that decision will be made.“The judge is on his own schedule,” Klauer said.She could not comment about what was asked on the questionnaire or whether the results of this week’s questioning could affect the decision about whether to move the trial.Authorities say that Atwater and Lawrence Alvin Lovette, 19, kidnapped Carson from her home on March 5, 2008, took her to withdraw $1,400 from her account and then shot her in a neighborhood off East Franklin Street.Both Atwater and Lovette are charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping in state court.Lovette, who was a minor at the time, was not indicted by federal authorities and cannot receive the death penalty.Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(02/18/10 3:52pm)
Streets are clear after a bomb threat targeted Greenbridge Development around 7 a.m. Thursday.
(02/18/10 4:42am)
UPDATE 12:30 P.M. THURSDAY — A Chapel Hill nursing home is conducting an internal investigation in response to residents testing positive for opiate drugs they were not prescribed.
(02/11/10 6:35am)
The descendants of two elderly women who were beaten to death by their housekeeper are suing a retirement community in Chatham County for failing to prevent it.The complaint in the wrongful death lawsuit states that the retirement community should have run a background check to discover that the housekeeper, Barbara Clark, had a history of forging checks and was ordered by a court to stay away from the elderly.Representatives for the retirement community did not respond to calls for comment.Margaret Murta, 92, and Mary Corcoran, 82, were beaten to death by a cane at the Galloway Ridge retirement community in Pittsboro in December 2007 after they learned Clark was forging their checks for money.Clark, who had been cleaning their apartment on Saturdays since 2006, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 2008 and is serving life without parole at Raleigh’s North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women.The estates of the elderly women who were beaten are asking for $10,000 from the retirement community in damages to help pay medical and funeral expenses, according to the complaint.The lawyers for the elderly wrote in the complaint that because the retirement community advertises that they ensure the well-being of residents and secure residents from harm, they should have run a background check. The complaint also states that the first 911 call reporting the beating came five minutes after the first pages were received from Murta and Corcoran’s alarm pendant.The community also should have been on the lookout for people taking advantage of the elderly, the complaint states.If they had done those things, they would have discovered that Clark had a history, the complaint states. As part of a 2001 plea deal after she was found guilty of forging two checks out of the bank account of an elderly resident, Clark was ordered not to work in a position where she had access to the elderly’s property and possessions, the complaint states.Also, starting in 2004, she began to forge checks for herself from a family of four who lived in Chapel Hill, the complaint states.Marissa Zang, spokeswoman for the law firm representing the women, said this kind of wrongful death case is not out of the ordinary. But Clark’s trial caught the attention of the public, she said.Because the lawsuit was just filed, there is no set date for the first hearing, Zang said.Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(02/08/10 6:36am)
PITTSBORO —As it poured rain, a crowd of reporters with TV cameras, recorders and microphones waited by a door to the Chatham County courthouse.One woman called her videographer and told him to get down there — Andrew and Cheri Young were leaving the building soon.They’re John Edwards’ former campaign workers who claim they have a sex tape of him and Rielle Hunter, with whom he had an affair. A judge had just found the Youngs in contempt of court Friday for not turning it in to authorities.It’s one of the Edwards-related events that have led national media to Chatham and Orange counties, which otherwise rank low on the scandal meter.A man from inside the courthouse addressed the crowd with crucial information: wrong door.“Other door! Side door! Move, move, move!” members of the media shouted as some jumped through renovation scaffolding and mud to get there.And the Youngs walked out in suits accompanied by lawyers, only to be pursued with questions and cameras all the way down Hillsboro Street.Three pairs of eyes watched through the window of Barber Shop, which has been on the street since 1963.“That there’s Andrew Young,” said 78-year-old Chester E. Barker, who owns the place. “I seen him on Sean Hannity.”And that’s about the biggest thing he’s seen go past his window.The case came to the small-town courthouse because the Youngs live in Chatham County, which shares a court system with Orange County.The court hasn’t been able to fund a scanner, so earlier this week judicial assistant Tammy Keshler said she faxed a 32-page legal document to about 30 media organizations and would have kept going if she hadn’t faxed it to a friend to get it scanned.“Yes ma’am. Long week. Late hours,” she said.More than 50 media organizations have the phones ringing off the hook at the courthouse in both Orange and Chatham counties.It’s more than when former Student Body President Eve Carson was found shot to death, Keshler said.Judge Abraham Penn Jones signed an order to regulate cameras in the courtroom. About a dozen TV cameras ultimately lined the back of the room, plus still cameras with telephoto lenses.The attention will divert to Orange County court in Hillsborough on Wednesday, where the Youngs have to turn in the tapes by 2 p.m.The court can at least control and prepare for a media swarm, said Capt. Mike Roberson of the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office.“Sometimes we have someone in court who has a death threat against them,” he said. “Sometimes the media’s the easiest thing.”But the Edwards drama is not something locals want to be associated with, Barker said as he gave a 4-year-old blond his first haircut.“I ain’t saying nothing about it because I don’t care nothing about it. I want him to get lost, get lost.”Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(02/05/10 6:05am)
Hundreds of callers who helped find the men charged with killing former Student Body President Eve Carson will stay anonymous, a judge ordered Thursday.The Orange County district attorney has documents which detail the tipster calls, some of which have already been provided to the defense lawyers of the men charged with Carson’s killing. After today’s order, the district attorney will hand over only the transcripts that don’t identify the tipsters, and all of the tips will remain sealed from public view.Most of the calls were to the anonymous tip service Crime Stoppers, Inc. 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, District Attorney Jim Woodall said.The defense attorneys wanted to see all of 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, Woodall has said.Both men were charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping of Carson that month.Preparing for federal trialAtwater is also being prosecuted in federal court.Because its so rare for federal courts to pursue cases similar to his, defense attorneys are arguing that the decision to indict him and choose to pursue the death penalty was arbitrary and based on race.Motions filed Monday asked for courts to rule out the possibility of the death penalty.They wrote that the U.S. attorney general was nearly four times more likely to authorize the death penalty in cases where the defendant was a young black male and the victim was a young white female than in other cases between 2001 and 2008.Atwater’s case is only the second charged in the Middle District of North Carolina between 1998 and 2008 on an indictment in which death was a possible penalty, even though a firearm was used in 1,098 murders, the defense wrote.The statistics are enough to prove discrimination, defense lawyers wrote.Lovette was less than 18 years old at the time of the crime and was ineligible to receive the death penalty. He was not indicted by federal prosecutors.“Apart from their death penalty eligibility, there is no other distinguishable, legitimate reason why the government would not prosecute Mr. Lovette federally for Ms. Carson’s murder, considering that Mr. Lovette and (Atwater) were allegedly involved in the exact same crime,” a defense motion states.If federal prosecutors want to respond to the defense’s claim before the trial, they have to do so by March 15, said Lynne Klauer, spokeswoman for the Middle District. The trial is scheduled to begin in May.Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(02/04/10 10:40pm)
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.
(02/04/10 5:40am)
Defense attorneys for one of the two men charged with killing former Student Body President Eve Carson want videos that could show if he was abused by police during his arrest and interrogation.Federal defense attorneys of 23-year-old Demario James Atwater filed a motion Monday asking for Durham and Chapel Hill police surveillance of Atwater and of Shanita Love, a key witness.If the videos do exist and show the physical and mental threats and abuse that Atwater says occured, any statements made by Atwater or Love during the videos would most likely be thrown out in court.“Coerced testimony would violate the Fifth and 14th Amendments,” Rich Myers of the UNC School of Law said. “If those statements led to other evidence, that evidence would be thrown out as well.”A Durham Police Department attorney said she couldn’t comment on the specific case, and there’s no guarantee an event in their patrol cars or department rooms — if any occurred — was captured on tape.“Our cameras are old,” said police attorney Arnetta Herring. “We’re in the process of replacing them.”Monday was the defense’s last opportunity to file motions before the federal trial, so Atwater’s attorneys also filed many last-minute requests for specific kinds of evidence and for the possibility of the death penalty to be reconsidered.The federal prosecutors have until March 15 to respond to the motions, said Lynne Klauer, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the N.C. Middle District.Sometime this month, a judge will decide whether to grant the defense’s request to move the trial out of state. The defense claims that 80 percent of North Carolinians are familiar with the case, which could mean the jury pool is too biased.The judge will decide before Feb. 22, when the in-state jury selection process is scheduled to begin.Authorities say Atwater and Lawrence Alvin Lovette, 19, kidnapped Carson from her home on March 5, 2008, took her to an ATM to withdraw $1,400 and then shot her in a neighborhood off East Franklin Street.Atwater faces both federal and state charges and is eligible to receive the death penalty if convicted after either trial.Lovette, Atwater’s co-defendant in the state’s case, has not been indicted by federal prosecutors. He is not eligible for the death penalty because he was younger than 18 when Carson was killed.Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(02/03/10 5:07pm)
Defense attorneys in the federal trial against one of the two men charged with killing former Student Body President Eve Carson claim he was abused by police and have asked for videos taken during his arrest and during the interrogation of a key witness.
(02/03/10 6:20am)
Former John Edwards aides Andrew and Cheri Young have been ordered to appear in court Friday for delaying in turning over what are said to be the former U.S. senator’s sex tapes.Rielle Hunter, who Edwards had an affair with while he was running for president, won a restraining order in Orange County court against the Youngs. The Youngs were ordered to turn over videos and photographs which involved Edwards and could harm Hunter’s reputation, court documents state.Andrew Young stated on 20/20 last week that the videos include sex tapes involving Edwards.Because they have not turned over the items, an order was filed Tuesday for them to appear in court in Chatham County.Court documents state that although the Youngs said they would turn over the videos and pictures as soon as possible after they were served with the restraining order Thursday, at least one of them has left the state.Hunter claims she left three videos and some photographs of her and Edwards in a box of personal things in her home, where she allowed the Youngs to stay. At least one of the Youngs has admitted to having the tapes, the restraining order states.The court has ordered them to bring the tapes and photographs to Friday’s hearing.Edwards, who fathered Hunter’s child during the affair, is a Chapel Hill resident, as are the Youngs.Andrew Young originally claimed paternity for Hunter’s child.Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(01/25/10 5:09am)
Federal prosecutors argued Friday that moving the trial of one of the men charged with killing former Student Body President Eve Carson would be inconvenient and unnecessary.Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Middle District of North Carolina in Winston-Salem responded Friday to the defense’s request to site the trial outside of North Carolina.The defense said in December that intense publicity following Carson’s death in March 2008 tainted the jury pool, making it impossible for their client, 23-year-old Demario James Atwater, to have a fair trial in the state.Prosecutors said that even though many North Carolinians are familiar with the case, the jury selection process would ensure unbiased members and avoid inconveniently transplanting lawyers, witnesses and staff to another state.The trial is set to be in early May, and a judge has until then to decide whether a move is necessary. The government would be responsible for financing the move.In most federal trials, the defense expects judges to deny motions to move the trial, said Rich Myers, an assistant professor at UNC School of Law, who worked several years as a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District. The U.S. Constitution states that criminal trials should be held in the state where the crime was committed. But strong evidence of a biased jury pool could be reason to move.“The defense has done a very good job bringing forward important information, enough to make the judge really think this through,” Myers said.Lynne Klauer, assistant U.S. attorney for the Middle District, said she couldn’t remember the last time federal courts granted a change of venue.Investigators say on March 5, 2008, Atwater and Lawrence Alvin Lovette, 19, took Carson from her home, drove her to an ATM to withdraw $1,400, then shot her five times in a neighborhood off East Franklin Street.Both Atwater and Lovette were on probation at the time, which led to heightened newspaper publicity and legislative attention to lapses in the system.The defense cited a survey that states that 80 percent of North Carolinians know about the case due to this attention, and 53 percent already believe Atwater is guilty.“Those are very compelling numbers,” Myers said.Prosecutors said the people surveyed may not have been aware of how the court system works — that an indictment isn’t a conviction. And even with 53 percent who have minds made up, the jury selection process can draw from the many people in the 47 percent.Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(01/19/10 5:26am)
One UNC alumnus was involved in relief long before the magnitude-7.0 earthquake hit Haiti on Jan. 12 and turned the world’s attention to a devastated country.
(01/13/10 5:28am)
Lawyers for the men charged with killing former Student Body President Eve Carson will argue again today that they should see all evidence against their clients — including anonymous tips to the Crime Stoppers service.A judge is expected to decide whether or not about 200 pages of Crime Stoppers reports can be handed to the defense, despite protests by the district attorney that it could endanger the informants or discourage the public from using the service.Judge Allen Baddour said at a Dec. 30 hearing that he would review the pages of information.“(Today) is basically to make arguments and possibly have a decision,” said attorney Jonathan Broun, who is representing Demario James Atwater, 23.Atwater is charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping along with Lawrence Alvin Lovette, 19, in the case.Investigators used informants to help lead to their arrest in March 2008.Carson’s body was found in a neighborhood off East Franklin Street, about a mile from campus. Prosecutors say Lovette and Atwater kidnapped her from her home March 5, 2008, drove her in her car to withdraw $1,400 from her bank account and then shot her five times.State law requires the prosecution to give everything involved in the investigation of the defendant to the attorneys but exempts them from disclosing the identity of a confidential informant.“The judge is going to make a decision based on state law and on the constitution,” Broun said.Crime Stoppers is a nonprofit organization that partners with police and offers rewards to informants who give information leading to an arrest.“The anonymity is important to a lot of people,” said Lt. Jabe Hunter of the Chapel Hill Police Department, who is a representative on the board of Crime Stoppers. “We need the public to solve crime in many cases.”Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(01/11/10 5:31am)
Federal defense attorneys for one of the men charged with killing former Student Body President Eve Carson worry their client won’t get a fair trial in North Carolina.
(12/09/09 5:13am)
This article was published in the 2009 Year in Review issue of The Daily Tar Heel.
(12/08/09 5:54am)
A 19-year-old woman reported this weekend that she was kidnapped and beaten by two men on Nov. 28, according to Chapel Hill police Lt. Kevin Gunter.
At about 2 a.m. that Saturday, as she was leaving Bailey’s Pub & Grill on Fordham Boulevard, two men in black masks, one of whom showed her that he was armed with a gun, approached her, she told police.
They ordered her into a small, compact car with tinted windows and drove her towards Pittsboro on U.S. 15-501, Gunter said.
Sometime after they were in Chatham County, the men stopped driving and began to strike her in the chest and arms, Gunter said.
For reasons the police don’t know, the men drove her back to Carrboro and parked on the side of a street, where they took her out of the car, Gunter said. She saw a Carrboro Police Department car drive by and took that as an opportunity to escape, he said.
Gunter did not know whether the woman made contact with Carrboro police and the department could not be reached Monday afternoon for comment.
The woman did not say whether she was a student, Gunter said.
Her report did not include a reference to sexual assault, he said.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(12/07/09 6:06am)
When Neil Kirschner moved to Millhouse Road 37 years ago, the county landfill was placed down the road.Tonight, Orange County Commissioners are scheduled to decide whether a plot of land across the street from Kirschner’s home should be turned into a station to transport trash outside the county when the landfill reaches capacity in 2012. Kirschner, a retired postal worker who has grown trees and raised chickens and bees as hobbies, tells a story that mirrors those of many who live in the neighborhood. There are two other options: placing the transfer station in a neighborhood off N.C. 54 near Orange Grove Road, or sharing a transfer station with Durham.DTH: One proposal is to save money by placing the transfer station on this road, and investing the saved money back into the community. Is that a fair compromise?Neil Kirschner: The extra money is already supposed to be coming in here. For 30 years here, we’ve heard, “The money, the money, the money, the money.” We’ve been told we’ll get it by legions of public officers who say, “OK, we’re going to solve all this.” It’s insulting. There’s nothing they could do with the saved money at all that would mitigate the experience or the placement of a waste transfer station in this community. This is totally, totally unacceptable for us.DTH: Why did you get involved in waste transfer station debates? NK: I’ve been here since ’72. We fought the first landfill and then in the 80s fought the second landfill. But honestly, until I heard this waste transfer station might be here, I didn’t pay attention. I thought, “That’s not affecting us; that’s their problem.” I live a fairly reclusive life out here. But with this issue, everyone comes together and brings their little expertise to the table. All of this little expertise turns into something really powerful. This has been a very cohesive movement for us. DTH: If the transfer station is placed here, will you move?NK: You don’t start over again. It takes 25 years to grow a pecan tree and 20 for an apple tree to grow to its peak. There was not a tree here when I came here and you just work at it and watch them grow. I raised my children here, planted my trees, raised the bees and the chickens. Why should I move if someone else makes a huge inconvenience for me? This was supposed to be over with. Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(12/02/09 12:43am)
Chapel Hill police have responded to 11 business break-ins since Nov. 18, and they're seeking help in their investigation. The businesses targeted were at Timberlyne Shopping Center on Weaver Dairy Road, Rams Plaza at Fordham Boulevard and the Village Plaza on South Elliott Road, according to a Chapel Hill Police Department news relase.