On Monday, a Gaston County jury found 42-year-old Michael Carver guilty of killing Irina Yarmolenko, a UNC-Charlotte student from Chapel Hill. He was sentenced to life without parole.
Carver and his cousin, Neal Cassada, were accused of strangling 20-year-old Yarmolenko on the banks of the Catawba River in May 2008. Cassada died from a heart attack the day before his trial.