
{"id":10663,"date":"2010-05-27T11:43:15","date_gmt":"2010-05-27T19:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=10663"},"modified":"2010-05-27T11:49:07","modified_gmt":"2010-05-27T19:49:07","slug":"atwater-pleads-guilty-in-state-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2010\/05\/27\/atwater-pleads-guilty-in-state-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Atwater pleads guilty in state court"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Sentenced to life in prison<br \/>\n<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>By Susan Dickson<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2010\/05\/27\/atwater-pleads-guilty-in-state-court\/atwater-demario-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10666\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/ATWATER-DEMARIO1-113x146.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"ATWATER,-DEMARIO\" width=\"113\" height=\"146\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-10666\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/ATWATER-DEMARIO1-113x146.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/ATWATER-DEMARIO1-87x113.jpg 87w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/ATWATER-DEMARIO1-231x300.jpg 231w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/ATWATER-DEMARIO1-61x80.jpg 61w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/ATWATER-DEMARIO1.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 113px) 100vw, 113px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>HILLSBOROUGH  \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Demario Atwater pleaded guilty on Monday in state court to first-degree murder in connection with the death of former UNC Student Body President Eve Carson.<\/p>\n<p>Under the plea agreement, District Attorney Jim Woodall agreed to drop the death penalty in exchange for a guilty plea carrying a sentence of life without parole. Carson, an Athens, Ga. native who came to UNC as a Morehead-Cain scholar, was shot and killed in a robbery during the early-morning hours of March 5, 2008.<\/p>\n<p>Atwater, 23, one of two suspects in the slaying of Carson, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon, first-degree kidnapping, possession of a firearm by a felon, felonious larceny and possession of a weapon of mass destruction. <\/p>\n<p>Atwater said little during the hearing except to answer \u00e2\u20ac\u0153yes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to questions from Judge Allen Baddour. Atwater did not address Carson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parents, Bob Carson and Teresa Bethke, or her younger brother, Andrew Carson, who sat together in the front row.<\/p>\n<p>Atwater\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mother, Peggy Maybrey, sat opposite the Carson family and began to cry as Woodall discussed the details surrounding Carson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death. <\/p>\n<p>During the hearing, Woodall explained how officers were able to arrest Atwater based on statements made to police by individuals who came forward with information about the case, including Atwater\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s girlfriend at the time, Shanita Love. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He had told her everything about what had happened that day,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Woodall said, adding that Love knew details about the case that had not been released to the public, including the types of weapons used \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a sawed-off Harrington and Richardson 12-gauge shotgun and a 25-calliber handgun. <\/p>\n<p>Woodall also described in detail what he believed happened the night Carson was murdered. She had stayed home to work on a paper at her Friendly Lane house while her roommates went out and was kidnapped by Atwater and suspect Laurence Alvin Lovette either from inside or just outside her home around 3:30 a.m. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They were essentially in Chapel Hill looking for people to rob,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Woodall said. <\/p>\n<p>Woodall said they took Carson to two ATMs in her Toyota Highlander, where they withdrew $1,400 from her bank accounts. Atwater and Lovette drove her car back toward downtown Chapel Hill, then turned into a quiet residential neighborhood, he told the court. <\/p>\n<p>It is unclear how Carson ended up outside of the car, in the intersection of Hillcrest Drive and Hillcrest Circle. Woodall said Lovette shot Carson four times with a handgun, but the medical examiner believed she would have still been alive and able to communicate at that point. According to Woodall, Atwater then shot Carson in the head, a wound that was immediately fatal. She also had a wound to her right hand, which medical examiners believe came from the shotgun as she was trying to shield her face. <\/p>\n<p>During sentencing, both Woodall and Baddour became emotional. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is indeed a sad day,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Baddour said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Things that we do in court are not statements. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not meant to be a statement. What we do instead is seek some measure of justice, and while we strive to achieve perfect justice, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re usually forced to accept something less than that.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mr. Atwater, what you have admitted to doing was senseless,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It does require that you spend the rest of your life in prison, and that is some measure of justice.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Carson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attorney, Wade Smith, gave a statement on behalf of the Carson family. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be talking to the court about how our lives are diminished without Eve,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he read from their statement. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The effects of her death are both obvious and personal. We choose not to confront Demario Atwater. The selfishness of taking another\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life is incomprehensible&#8230;. Today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s outcome is neither adequate nor good, but the court\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s acceptance of the guilty plea with a sentence of life in prison honors our wishes.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d  <\/p>\n<p>Woodall said the family\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wishes were a major factor in his decision to accept Atwater\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plea. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They needed to have closure,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, Woodall said it was his understanding that Carson would have been opposed to the death penalty.<\/p>\n<p>The plea comes a little more than a month after a similar deal for Atwater in federal court, in which officials agreed to take the death penalty off the table in exchange for a guilty plea with a sentence of life without parole. Atwater is scheduled for sentencing in federal court on Sept. 23. <\/p>\n<p>The state cannot seek the death penalty against Lovette because he was 17 at the time of the murder. Woodall said he would know more about the timeline for Lovette\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trial by the end of June. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Demario Atwater pleaded guilty on Monday in state court to first-degree murder in connection with the death of former UNC Student Body President Eve Carson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10663"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10675,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10663\/revisions\/10675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}