By Rose Laudicina
Staff Writer
Proceedings began Monday at the Orange County Courthouse in Hillsborough in the State of North Carolina v. Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr., who is accused of murdering UNC Student Body President Eve Carson on March 5, 2008.
Lovette is also charged with felony larceny, armed robbery and first-degree kidnapping. However, because Lovette has pled not guilty to all four charges brought against him, Judge Allen Baddour made sure to remind the first pool of jurors to be interviewed that he is presumed to be innocent on all charges.
“Just because he has been charged with a crime does not mean he is guilty,†Baddour told the potential jurors.
Karen Bethea-Shields, one of Lovette’s attorneys, also stressed that her client was innocent until proven guilty, and said that what was truly on trial was the evidence presented by the state.
Bethea-Shields and fellow defense attorney Kevin Bradley said they wanted to make certain that the second murder Lovette has been charged with, in Durham, is not a factor in this trial.
Abhijit Mahato, a Duke University graduate student, was found with a fatal gunshot wound to the head a two months before Carson was killed. Lovette wasn’t charged with the murder of Mahato until after being arrested in the Carson case.
On Monday, defense attorneys told Baddour they believe some of the witnesses Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall may intend to use in the case will give testimony including information regarding the Mahato case.
While Woodall doesn’t deny that five of his potential witnesses will give testimony related to the Mahato case, he argued that their testimony would help show similarities between the two murder cases, such as the nature of the crime and the motive.
The defense attorneys also questioned the credibility of some of those witnesses.
“One of the witnesses swore in front of the federal grand jury something that is totally different than what is given in this sealed admission,†Bethea-Shields said. “You have hearsay upon hearsay.â€
Additionally, Lovette’s attorneys said that, given that there may be similarities between the two cases, in hearing information about the Durham case, jurors could get confused.
“We are talking about trying two cases,†Bethea-Shields told the judge. “That is what the court is going to do by letting these … statements come in, and it will be totally confusing to the jury. At some point, they are going to ask, ‘What are we trying?’â€
Baddour ruled that those witnesses would be allowed to testify and give information regarding the Mahato case, but that the defense would be allowed to argue against the evidence they present and claim it to be inadmissible.
Jury selection
In his introduction to potential jury members on Tuesday, Baddour said he anticipates the trial lasting three weeks.
However, if the pace at which individual jurors were interviewed during the first day of jury selection is maintained, that process alone could take nearly that long. It took almost the entire morning session to question one juror, who, after extensive questioning by Woodall, was determined to be unfit to serve and was dismissed.
Questioning of a second juror began before the court went into recess for lunch, and by the end of the day, only four of the more than 40 potential jurors had been questioned.
Jurors were asked a wide variety of questions, including what TV shows they liked to watch and how closely they had followed media coverage of the murder.
Jurors were also read the entire eight-page list of potential prosecution witnesses to determine if they knew any of them and were asked if they had ever formed an opinion regarding the guilt of the witnesses.
“Do you feel like even though you may have formed some opinions in the past, could you be fair and impartial to this defendant in this case?†Woodall asked a potential juror.
All potential jury members will be questioned and selected individually so that any potential bias held by one person will not affect others.