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Vivid testimony in Lovette trial

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Staff

By Rose Laudicina
Staff Writer
Testimony continued in the trial of the State of North Carolina v. Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr. this week, as expert witnesses were called to the stand, details about Carson’s last moments were told and the validity of testimony from Demario Atwater’s ex-girlfriend was questioned.

Lovette is accused of murdering UNC Student Body President Eve Carson on March 5, 2008, with Atwater, who has pled guilty and is currently serving a life sentence. The defendant has pled not guilty to all charges.

Jayson McNeil, a childhood friend of Lovette, provided testimony of the events surrounding Carson’s last hours, of which little was previously known.

McNeil said Lovette called him on the evening of March 4 and asked for a ride for himself and Atwater to Chapel Hill, but that he declined.

McNeil said that Lovette phoned him again on March 12, sounding anxious, having just learned of Atwater’s arrest, and again asked for a ride. McNeil picked him up, and claims Lovette told him what happened on March 5.

“He explained to me that they saw Eve Carson get into her car and they rushed her,” he said. District Attorney Jim Woodall had previously contended Carson had been taken from her house.

“He explained that they took her to a part of the woods and she was pleading with them and said they could take whatever they want, and they didn’t have to do what they were doing,” McNeil said.

Woodall asked McNeil why Lovette said they murdered Carson.

“He said he murdered her because she had seen their faces,” McNeil said.

Woodall maintains Lovette shot Carson four times with a handgun before Atwater shot her in the head with a sawed-off shotgun.

McNeil’s testimony came after that of Dr. Cynthia Gardner, the medical examiner who performed Carson’s autopsy. Her testimony left some jurors in tears.

Gardner said that after the first four shots, Carson would have been alive and able to move and talk, while the final shot, into her temple, was immediately fatal.

McNeil recently pled guilty to drug charges, and is hoping to get a reduced sentence in exchange for his testimony.

Another witness who took the stand is also being accused by the defense of having ulterior motives for testifying.

In 2008, Shanita Love was dating Atwater and living with him in Durham along with her three children and his mother and three siblings. She testified about events that happened before and after March 5.

Love said that on the night of March 4, Atwater left their apartment around 10 p.m. and didn’t return until 5:30 a.m.

However, she said wasn’t aware of her boyfriend and Lovette’s involvement until she saw a photo on the news taken at an ATM of what prosecutors contend is the defendant driving Carson’s car. She said Lovette was at the apartment, saw the picture, cursed, asked to use the phone and left.

Love also testified she was in the car with Atwater, Lovette and their friend Jeffery Charles Harris when Lovette disposed of the handgun prosecutors say he used to shoot Carson.

She later helped police find two of the three pieces of the gun.

Although Love said she did not remember throwing out any pieces of the weapon, when defense attorney Karen Bethea-Shields questioned Celisa Lehew, the Chapel Hill Police Department’s lead investigator on the case, she said Harris told investigators Love had also thrown something out the window.

Bethea-Shields asked Lehew if she believed the reason Love had so much information that had not previously been released, including the amount in Carson’s accounts and the fact that Atwater had not sexually assaulted Carson, was because Love was there when the murder was committed.

“She never informed me she was there,” Lehew said numerous times.

Initially when asked why she decided to talk with police, Love said that “it was the right thing to do.” However, when the defense questioned her about her motive and the reward offered for information, Love said, “I did state that if I could get the reward, that would be nice.”

While Love’s involvement with the defendants after the murder could have led to her being charged in the case, she was granted immunity for her testimony.

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