Posted on 10/28/2008 9:26:13 PM PDT by wac3rd
GREENSBORO - A federal grand jury on Monday indicted one of two men accused in the slaying of the student body president at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, adding on to state murder charges.
Demario Atwater, 22, was indicted on one count of carjacking resulting in death, and carrying and using firearms during and in relation to carjacking, both of which could allow federal authorities to seek a death sentence.
State prosecutors had already charged both Atwater and Laurence Lovette, 17, with murder in the March 5 death of Eve Carson, 22, of Athens, Ga. Her body was found early that morning in the middle of a residential street near the school's campus. She had been shot five times, including once in the head with a 12-gauge shotgun.
Atwater already faces the death penalty if convicted on state murder charges. Lovette can't be sentenced to death in either state or federal court because the crime was committed before he turned 18.
(Excerpt) Read more at thetimesnews.com ...
Lovette also killed a Duke grad student.
I just read the autopsy report. This is capital murder if it is anything. Federal prosecution = greatly diminished chance of blown prosecution. Make this one stick.
I read it too...they shot her 5-6x
Confusion aside, thank God they found these thugs. This woman had a bright future and my prayers go to her family.
Lovette can’t get the death penalty because of his age whether tried at the state or federal level. Lovette robbed a brilliant international Duke graduate student at his off-campus apartment and then put a pillow over his head and shot him in cold blood. Lovette paired up with Atwater and abducted Eve Carson, who was the student body president of UNC-CH, withdrew money from her account, and shot her repeatedly early in the morning at an intersection in a quiet neighborhood in Chapel Hill.
It’s “either state or Federal.” I admit to not understanding how there can be Federal charges out of a murder that was committed purely within the boundaries of one state, but the fact that they’re piling on does greatly increase the chances of a successful prosecution.
I hope Orange County (home of Chapel Hill) is a lot more competent than we next-door neighbors in Durham County. If Atwater was being charged here in Nifongville (like Lovette is with the murder of the Indian Duke grad student earlier in the year) he’d probably get away with it. After seeing it in action as a juror, I have no faith with the justice system in this city and county, at any level.
}:-)4
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