Eve Carson

Eve Marie Carson Murder

Compiled by Lewis Loflin

Eve Marie Carson, 22, was a student at the University of North Carolina who was shot and killed on the morning of March 5, 2008, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She was studying at her parent's home when the two black thugs entered the home through an unlocked door. The trespassers, Laurence Alvin Lovette, 17, and Demario James Atwater, 22, forced Eve into her car, took her to an ATM, and forced her to withdraw cash.

They got $1,400 over the next two days. Forensics indicate Carson raised her arm trying to shield herself from a shotgun blast to her hand and head. She was then shot four other times by two different guns. In the end both escaped the death penalty as usual. At least she wasn't raped.

Demario James Atwater

Demario James Atwater, 21, Durham, North Carolina has been charged with her murder along with 17-year-old Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr. Lovette was taken into custody early morning March 13, 2008 and charged with Stephen Lavance Oates Jr., 19, of the first-degree murder of a Duke University graduate student, Abhijit Mahato.

He was found dead on Jan. 18 in Durham. Atwater was arrested as he left his Durham home after police received a tip. Both Lovette and Atwater have criminal records and were no surprise on parole at the time.

Carson's body was found at the intersection of Hillcrest Circle and Hillcrest Drive in Chapel Hill at approximately 5 a.m. on March 5, 2008. Police couldn't immediately identify the body, but by 9 a.m. on March 6 the medical examiner identified the body of Miss Carson.

Unusual for North Carolina, records such as the autopsy report and search warrants were sealed from public view in the months after the murder. On June 27, 2008, some information was finally released. In 2008, federal investigators brought carjacking charges against Atwater. The significance of federal charges is that carjacking committed during a homicide carries the death penalty.

While Atwater faces the death penalty under North Carolina law, the last execution in Orange County was in 1948. As a result of the Roper v. Simmons ruling, Lovette cannot face capital punishment as he was under 18 at the time of the crimes. As of January 2011 his fate is still up in the air.

In October 2008, federal authorities indicted Demario Atwater on federal charges for the carjacking of Eve Carson, requesting the death penalty. On April 19, 2010, Atwater pleaded guilty to federal carjacking, weapons and kidnapping charges. In exchange for the guilty plea, federal prosecutors agreed to drop the death penalty. Because of another plea bargin, he escaped the death penalty in North Carolina.

On September 23, 2010 Demario James Atwater received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the first degree murder charge, along with a concurrent sentence of 23 to 29 years for armed robbery, kidnapping and firearms charges. He was ordered to pay $212,947.10 in restitution. Atwater will serve his sentence in federal custody. What a sick joke, where is this thug supposed to $212,000?