Murder of Eve Carson
Carson's university portrait | |
| Date | March 5, 2008 |
|---|---|
| Deaths | Eve Carson |
| Convicted | Demario James Atwater Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr. |
| Charges | first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, armed robbery, possession of a firearm by a felon. |
| Verdict | Guilty |
On the morning of March 5, 2008, Eve Marie Carson was abducted, robbed and shot to death in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States where she was a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Carson had been studying in her student house when two men ambushed her, forced her into a car and stole $700 from her card. After taking the money, the perpetrators dragged her into the woods before shooting her several times with a handgun. When this did not kill Carson, one of the perpetrators murdered her with a fatal shot from a shotgun to the side of her head, before fleeing the scene.
Demario James Atwater and Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr. were charged with her murder.
On May 24, 2010, Atwater pleaded guilty to first degree murder, armed robbery, and kidnapping in a plea bargain agreement that will have him serve two sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In his December 2011 trial, Lovette pleaded not guilty but was found guilty and, like Atwater, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, a sentence that was reaffirmed in a 2013 resentencing. The event received national exposure when it was mentioned on American Idol by contestant Anoop Desai. A scholarship and a memorial garden have been created at UNC in Carson's honor.