Demario Atwater sentenced to life in prison for murdering college student
September 24th, 2010 - 1:11 am ICT by BNO NewsWINSTON-SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA (BNO NEWS) – A Durham, North Carolina man on Thursday was sentenced to life in prison for the 2008 kidnap and murder of a female college student, prosecutors said.
Demario Atwater, 23, pleaded guilty last April to five charges, including first-degree murder, carjacking resulting in death, kidnapping resulting in death, carrying and using firearms during and in relation to carjacking and kidnapping resulting in death, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Atwater and co-defendant Laurence Alvin Lovette, 19, of Durham, kidnapped Eve Carson, from her Chapel Hill home in March 2008. Carson, 22, was a former UNC-Chapel Hill student-body president.
The criminals forced Carson into her Highlander vehicle and drove through Orange and Durham counties. Carson was ordered to withdraw $1,400 from automated teller machines. After that, Atwater and Lovette shot her five times, including one to the head with a handgun and a sawed-off shotgun.
Residents in the area reported the gunfire and police officers were rushed to the scene. Carson’s body was found about a mile from campus in Chapel Hill. The autopsy revealed that four shots were made with a .25 caliber handgun. Lovette’s DNA was found in Carson’s Highlander.
Atwater’s guilty pleas to both state and federal charges avoided a possible death penalty. However, he asked his team of three attorneys not to present evidence of his life history which was intended to show the hardships he endured to reduce sentencing.
“I’m sorry for everything that’s happened. No matter what the court did today it would be far from anything I should receive,” Atwater said.
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