You're right, there might have been an earlier deal in which she would attend school. OTOH she might not have gone there at all.
I'm reminded of the man who murdered his wife after she found out he wasn't really in medical school. All the family and neighbors had believed his school story for years.
What did I miss?? Exhausting her parents savings? Theft & blackmail (clients), shoplifting? ....oh, yeh...mowing down people with her car?? or was that her new ex-best friend, Kim??
"Oh, the tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive." Unfortunately I think her parents are dumber than a box of rocks, like the folks out in Utah who believed their son/husband was in school all that time. Trust, but verify, I wasn't born yesterday. I make sure I have my finger on the pulse of my son's whereabouts, and if something smells in a story he proffers, I keep prodding like the loving mother I am, until he cracks. (Okay, okay, I know. It's my second vent of the day, but I'm better now, really.)
The defendant in a felony case in North Carolina has a right to a jury trial and it is a right he can waive, in favor of a bench trial.
It's found in the North Carolina Constitution at section 24, and in North Carolina General Statutes at Rule 39, and also in subchapter XII, article 71.
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/enactedlegislation/statutes/html/bysection/chapter_1a/gs_1a-1,_rule_39.html
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/enactedlegislation/statutes/html/bysection/chapter_15a/gs_15a-1201.html