Murder of Eve Carson
Encyclopedia
Eve Marie Carson 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
, United States
. She served as Student Body President and was a recipient of the Morehead-Cain Scholarship
. Demario James Atwater, a 21-year-old resident of Durham
, North Carolina
was charged with her murder, and on May 24, 2010, Atwater pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in a plea bargain agreement that will have him serve life in prison without the possibility of parole. A second suspect, 17-year-old Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr., was taken into custody early morning March 13, 2008. Later, investigators also connected Lovette to the January 2008 murder of 29-year-old Duke University
engineering student Abhijit Mahato.
, Georgia
, on November 19, 1985, where she attended Clarke Central High School
. She was elected president of the high school's student body and was valedictorian
. While at UNC, Carson majored in Political Science and Biology, in the pre-medicine career path. Her academic achievements earned her membership in the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, and she was a recipient of the Morehead-Cain Scholarship
. Outside of class, Carson participated in and led numerous organizations and service projects. She was selected to be a North Carolina Fellow, a four-year leadership development program.
Carson was inaugurated as UNC's student body president in April 2007, and her term was due to expire in April 2008. In her role as student body president, Carson served as a member of the university's board of trustees and many other committees. She was also active as co-president of the Honors Program Student Executive Board and as a member of the Committee on Scholarships, Awards and Student Aide, the Academic Advising Program, the Chancellor Search Committee, the Chancellor’s Committee for University Teaching Awards, and co-chair of UNC's chapter of Nourish International.
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 could not immediately identify the body, but at 9 a.m. on March 6, 2008, police investigators and the office of the medical examiner identified the body as that of Carson. The Chapel Hill Police Chief said that Carson's death appeared to be a random act. Police recovered her car more than a mile away from her body after receiving a tip from a local witness. Police also released images from a security video of a person using Carson's ATM
card.
Carson was shot several times including a shotgun
blast to the head. According to a confidential informant
to Chapel Hill police, both Atwater and Lovette shot her. The medical examiner said that Carson had not been sexually assaulted
.
, records such as the autopsy
report and search warrant
s were sealed from public view in the months after the murder. On June 27, 2008, some information was finally released. Details in six warrants confirm that $1,400 was withdrawn from ATMs using Carson's card over a two-day period after the shooting. They also reveal that Atwater admitted to being the suspect attempting to use the ATM card in a security video taken in a local convenience store and that Lovette was indeed the person pictured in original ATM surveillance photograph. The autopsy report was released on June 30, 2008.
ious larceny
and felonious stolen goods. Atwater was also charged with possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of weapon of mass destruction (based on the specifications of the shotgun used in the murder).
In July 2008, federal investigators
also brought carjacking
charges against Atwater. These charges were of particular significance because carjacking committed during a homicide carries the death penalty. As a result of the Roper v. Simmons
ruling, Lovette could not face the death penalty as he was under 18 at the time of the crimes.
without the possibility of parole for the murder. He was also given a concurrent sentence of 23 to 29 years for the additional charges.
On September 23, 2010, Atwater was sentenced in federal court to life in prison for the murder, a 10-year sentence for discharging a weapon resulting in death, and two additional 10-year sentences to run concurrently for federal carjacking and weapons charges. He was also ordered to undergo substance abuse treatment and to pay restitution of $212,947.10 should he ever be released, which the judge noted is "highly unlikely". His life sentences are to be served consecutively and in federal custody.
After his sentencing, Atwater spoke directly to the Carson family saying, "I'm sorry for for everything that's happened. ... No matter what the court did today, it would be far from anything I should receive."
Atwater is currently serving his life sentence at the United States Penitentiary, Victorville
, a high security federal prison
in California
.
Lovette pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. His state trial is scheduled to begin on November 28, 2011.
On March 6, 2008, at 3 p.m., UNC's Chancellor James Moeser
spoke to the student body on the central quad
, Polk Place, and at 7 p.m. students organized a candlelit vigil in "The Pit", a sunken plaza near the students' union building. The service included singing by three student a cappella
groups and a slideshow of photos of Carson. Hundreds of people attended Carson's March 9 funeral in Athens, including Moeser, who said that Carson was "truly a gift to Chapel Hill."
In honor of Carson, the North Carolina men's and women's basketball teams wore a black badge on their jersey that read "EVE" for the remainder of their seasons. On March 8, 2008 before the start of the Carolina–Duke men's basketball game, there was a moment of silence in Eve's honor.
Carson's dual-major Bachelor's Degree was posthumously awarded—for the first time in the University's history—to her surviving family (parents & brother) at the May 2008 UNC graduation ceremony she would have attended had she lived. She was posthumously awarded the General Alumni Association of UNC's 2009 Distinguished Young Alumni Award.
The case was brought to national attention again in 2009 after American Idol
finalist Anoop Desai
, who was a good friend of Carson's, talked about the incident on the show and how it motivated him to audition.
On the two year anniversary of her death, UNC dedicated the Eve Marie Carson Garden. One feature of the garden is a wall inscribed with her words: "Learn from every single being, experience, and moment. What joy it is to search for lessons and goodness and enthusiasm in others."
The Pi Beta Phi and Phi Delta Theta chapters of UNC now host the annual Eve Carson Memorial 5K in her honor. The money raised each year goes to the Eve Carson scholarship and First Book, Pi Phi's national philanthropy for literacy. The 2010 race raised over $30,000 and was the largest 5K in Chapel Hill history. The 2011 race is set for November 19, Carson's birthday.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
who was shot and killed on the morning of March 5, 2008, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. She served as Student Body President and was a recipient of the Morehead-Cain Scholarship
Morehead-Cain Scholarship
The Morehead-Cain Scholarship was the first merit scholarship program established in the United States, founded at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the first public university in the United States. It is named for its benefactors, John Motley Morehead III and the Gordon and Mary Cain...
. Demario James Atwater, a 21-year-old resident of Durham
Durham, North Carolina
Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County and also extends into Wake County. It is the fifth-largest city in the state, and the 85th-largest in the United States by population, with 228,330 residents as of the 2010 United States census...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
was charged with her murder, and on May 24, 2010, Atwater pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in a plea bargain agreement that will have him serve life in prison without the possibility of parole. A second suspect, 17-year-old Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr., was taken into custody early morning March 13, 2008. Later, investigators also connected Lovette to the January 2008 murder of 29-year-old Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
engineering student Abhijit Mahato.
Life
Carson was born in AthensAthens, Georgia
Athens-Clarke County is a consolidated city–county in U.S. state of Georgia, in the northeastern part of the state, comprising the former City of Athens proper and Clarke County. The University of Georgia is located in this college town and is responsible for the initial growth of the city...
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, on November 19, 1985, where she attended Clarke Central High School
Clarke Central High School
Clarke Central High School is located in Athens, Georgia. The school was created in 1970 by the merger of two high schools, Athens High School and Burney-Harris High School , as a result of desegregation....
. She was elected president of the high school's student body and was valedictorian
Valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title conferred upon the student who delivers the closing or farewell statement at a graduation ceremony. Usually, the valedictorian is the highest ranked student among those graduating from an educational institution...
. While at UNC, Carson majored in Political Science and Biology, in the pre-medicine career path. Her academic achievements earned her membership in the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, and she was a recipient of the Morehead-Cain Scholarship
Morehead-Cain Scholarship
The Morehead-Cain Scholarship was the first merit scholarship program established in the United States, founded at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the first public university in the United States. It is named for its benefactors, John Motley Morehead III and the Gordon and Mary Cain...
. Outside of class, Carson participated in and led numerous organizations and service projects. She was selected to be a North Carolina Fellow, a four-year leadership development program.
Carson was inaugurated as UNC's student body president in April 2007, and her term was due to expire in April 2008. In her role as student body president, Carson served as a member of the university's board of trustees and many other committees. She was also active as co-president of the Honors Program Student Executive Board and as a member of the Committee on Scholarships, Awards and Student Aide, the Academic Advising Program, the Chancellor Search Committee, the Chancellor’s Committee for University Teaching Awards, and co-chair of UNC's chapter of Nourish International.
Murder
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
at approximately 5 a.m. on March 5, 2008. Police could not immediately identify the body, but at 9 a.m. on March 6, 2008, police investigators and the office of the medical examiner identified the body as that of Carson. The Chapel Hill Police Chief said that Carson's death appeared to be a random act. Police recovered her car more than a mile away from her body after receiving a tip from a local witness. Police also released images from a security video of a person using Carson's ATM
Automated teller machine
An automated teller machine or automatic teller machine, also known as a Cashpoint , cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public...
card.
Carson was shot several times including a shotgun
Shotgun
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...
blast to the head. According to a confidential informant
Informant
An informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...
to Chapel Hill police, both Atwater and Lovette shot her. The medical examiner said that Carson had not been sexually assaulted
Sexual assault
Sexual assault is an assault of a sexual nature on another person, or any sexual act committed without consent. Although sexual assaults most frequently are by a man on a woman, it may involve any combination of two or more men, women and children....
.
Investigation and prosecution
Unusual for North CarolinaNorth Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, records such as the autopsy
Autopsy
An autopsy—also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction—is a highly specialized surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...
report and search warrant
Search warrant
A search warrant is a court order issued by a Magistrate, judge or Supreme Court Official that authorizes law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person or location for evidence of a crime and to confiscate evidence if it is found....
s were sealed from public view in the months after the murder. On June 27, 2008, some information was finally released. Details in six warrants confirm that $1,400 was withdrawn from ATMs using Carson's card over a two-day period after the shooting. They also reveal that Atwater admitted to being the suspect attempting to use the ATM card in a security video taken in a local convenience store and that Lovette was indeed the person pictured in original ATM surveillance photograph. The autopsy report was released on June 30, 2008.
State and Federal charges
On March 12, 2008, first-degree murder charges were filed against 21-year-old Demario James Atwater. His accomplice, 17-year-old Lawrence Alvin Lovette, Jr., was arrested and charged with the same the following day. On July 7, 2008, additional charges of first-degree kidnapping and armed robbery were raised against the two murder suspects, along with felonFelony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
ious larceny
Larceny
Larceny is a crime involving the wrongful acquisition of the personal property of another person. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of England into their own law. It has been abolished in England and Wales,...
and felonious stolen goods. Atwater was also charged with possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of weapon of mass destruction (based on the specifications of the shotgun used in the murder).
In July 2008, federal investigators
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
also brought carjacking
Carjacking
Carjacking is a form of hijacking, where the crime is of stealing a motor vehicle and so also armed assault when the vehicle is occupied. Historically, such as in the rash of semi-trailer truck hijackings during the 1960s, the general term hijacking was used for that type of vehicle abduction,...
charges against Atwater. These charges were of particular significance because carjacking committed during a homicide carries the death penalty. As a result of the Roper v. Simmons
Roper v. Simmons
Roper v. Simmons, was a decision in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that it is unconstitutional to impose capital punishment for crimes committed while under the age of 18. The 5-4 decision overruled the Court's prior ruling upholding such sentences on offenders above or at the...
ruling, Lovette could not face the death penalty as he was under 18 at the time of the crimes.
Pleas and sentencing
Atwater pleaded guilty to state charges of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, armed robbery, possession of a firearm by a felon, and possession of a weapon of mass destruction on May 27, 2010. In exchange for his plea, state prosecutors dropped the death penalty, instead sentencing him to life in prisonLife imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
without the possibility of parole for the murder. He was also given a concurrent sentence of 23 to 29 years for the additional charges.
On September 23, 2010, Atwater was sentenced in federal court to life in prison for the murder, a 10-year sentence for discharging a weapon resulting in death, and two additional 10-year sentences to run concurrently for federal carjacking and weapons charges. He was also ordered to undergo substance abuse treatment and to pay restitution of $212,947.10 should he ever be released, which the judge noted is "highly unlikely". His life sentences are to be served consecutively and in federal custody.
After his sentencing, Atwater spoke directly to the Carson family saying, "I'm sorry for for everything that's happened. ... No matter what the court did today, it would be far from anything I should receive."
Atwater is currently serving his life sentence at the United States Penitentiary, Victorville
United States Penitentiary, Victorville
The United States Penitentiary, Victorville is a high-security federal prison for men in the United States. Part of the Federal Correctional Complex, Victorville, USP Victorville is located in Victorville, California, on the grounds of the former George Air Force Base.-Construction:USP Victorville...
, a high security federal prison
Federal prison
Federal prisons are run by national governments in countries where subdivisions of the country also operate prisons.In the United States federal prisons are operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In Canada the Correctional Service of Canada operates federal prisons. Prison sentences in these...
in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Lovette pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. His state trial is scheduled to begin on November 28, 2011.
Memorial and funeral
James Moeser
James Charles Moeser was the ninth chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also a trained concert organist...
spoke to the student body on the central quad
Quadrangle (architecture)
In architecture, a quadrangle is a space or courtyard, usually rectangular in plan, the sides of which are entirely or mainly occupied by parts of a large building. The word is probably most closely associated with college or university campus architecture, but quadrangles may be found in other...
, Polk Place, and at 7 p.m. students organized a candlelit vigil in "The Pit", a sunken plaza near the students' union building. The service included singing by three student a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
groups and a slideshow of photos of Carson. Hundreds of people attended Carson's March 9 funeral in Athens, including Moeser, who said that Carson was "truly a gift to Chapel Hill."
In honor of Carson, the North Carolina men's and women's basketball teams wore a black badge on their jersey that read "EVE" for the remainder of their seasons. On March 8, 2008 before the start of the Carolina–Duke men's basketball game, there was a moment of silence in Eve's honor.
Carson's dual-major Bachelor's Degree was posthumously awarded—for the first time in the University's history—to her surviving family (parents & brother) at the May 2008 UNC graduation ceremony she would have attended had she lived. She was posthumously awarded the General Alumni Association of UNC's 2009 Distinguished Young Alumni Award.
Legacy
To honor her life, the University of North Carolina established the Eve Carson Scholarship, in order to achieve Eve's goal of "reward[ing] students who had grown significantly in the areas of academics, social justice and leadership since their college matriculation".The case was brought to national attention again in 2009 after American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
finalist Anoop Desai
Anoop Desai
Anoop Desai is an American singer-songwriter best known for his time as a contestant on the eighth season of American Idol. Motivated by the death of his friend Eve Carson, Desai auditioned for American Idol. Desai made American Idol history by being the first ever 13th finalist on American Idol...
, who was a good friend of Carson's, talked about the incident on the show and how it motivated him to audition.
On the two year anniversary of her death, UNC dedicated the Eve Marie Carson Garden. One feature of the garden is a wall inscribed with her words: "Learn from every single being, experience, and moment. What joy it is to search for lessons and goodness and enthusiasm in others."
The Pi Beta Phi and Phi Delta Theta chapters of UNC now host the annual Eve Carson Memorial 5K in her honor. The money raised each year goes to the Eve Carson scholarship and First Book, Pi Phi's national philanthropy for literacy. The 2010 race raised over $30,000 and was the largest 5K in Chapel Hill history. The 2011 race is set for November 19, Carson's birthday.
External links
- Eve Marie Carson Scholarship.
- Eve Carson Memorial 5K
- Eve Carson, 1985–2008 University memorial website.
- Eve Carson. The News & Observer's coverage of Carson.
- Eve Carson homicide. WRAL-TV's coverage of the murder.
- wdydwyd? Eve's answer to, "Why do you do what you do?" two days before she was shot.
- YouTube Videos of Eve on YouTube.com