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Thread: Laurence Alvin Lovette, Jr. Sentenced to LWOP in 2008 NC Slaying of Eve Carson

  1. #11
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Eve Carson Killer makes Requests ahead of Second Trial

    DURHAM (WTVD) --The man accused of robbing and fatally shooting a Duke graduate student made a few requests Tuesday ahead of his scheduled murder trial later this summer.

    Defense attorneys for Laurence Lovette Jr. have filed new motions requesting the judge limit what potential jurors hear during jury selection.

    Court motions suggest Lovette is concerned about key witnesses that claim he admitted to robbing and killing Abhijit Mahato in January 2008. His attorneys contend the witnesses implicated Lovette because of police influence.

    Lovette is also asking witnesses in his upcoming trial be sequestered. His attorneys want the witnesses to remain outside the courtroom during the trial until they're called to testify.

    The NC Court of Appeals recently upheld Lovette's life sentence in connection with the shooting death of UNC student Eve Carson in March 2008.

    Lovette has maintained his innocence in the death of Abhijit Mahato after entering a not guilty plea last year. Previously, his defense team expressed concern about pretrial publicity surrounding the Mahato case and Carson's murder.

    ABC11 sources say there's been no definitive discussion of a plea deal in the case.

    http://abc11.com/news/eve-carson-kil...d-trial/79618/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  2. #12
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    Jury Selection to Begin in Laurence Lovette Murder Trial

    DURHAM (WTVD) -- Jury selection is set to begin Monday in the 2008 murder of Durham graduate student Abhijit Mahato.

    Laurence Lovette Jr., the man convicted of killing UNC student body president Eve Carson has been charged in the case.

    Investigators have said Lovette robbed and fatally shot Mahato at his Durham apartment in January 2008.

    Authorities said Mahato's friends later discovered his body after going to check on him when he did not respond to their calls and text messages.
    Autopsy results revealed the grad student was shot between the eyes.

    Mahato's made headlines locally and in India, where the victim was born. Lovette's connection in Carson's murder led to more publicity about Mahato's death.

    That is why potential jurors will get the same type of questionnaire that was used in the Crystal Mangum murder trial, in order to find out how much prior knowledge they have about the case.
    The questionnaire is expected to speed up the jury selection process.

    Prosecutors have told ABC11 that Mahato's parents and family will not be called as witnesses, because they are in India.

    http://abc11.com/news/jury-selection...trial-/183408/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #13
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    Prospective jurors questioned in Lovette murder trial

    By Keith Upchurch

    DURHAM — Prospective jurors in Laurence Lovette’s murder trial in the death of a Duke University graduate student were questioned Monday in Durham County Superior Court, with a strong focus on what they knew about the slaying of UNC student body president Eve Carson.

    A questionnaire filled out by those who might be seated on the jury asked if they knew about the 2008 death of Carson. Lovette is serving a life sentence for fatally shooting her.

    One man said he had learned about the death of the Duke student, Abhijit Mahato, from television and the Internet, but had formed no opinion about Lovette’s guilt or innocence. He said he was aware of the Carson case, but said he could serve impartially.

    Earlier in the day, it was revealed in court that Lovette had rejected an earlier plea deal in the slaying of Mahato. No details were released, but Lovette decided to plead not guilty instead and go to trial.

    Lovette is charged with robbery and murder in the 2008 death of 29-year-old Mahato, who was found shot to death Jan. 18 at Anderson Street Apartments off campus.

    Several members of the jury pool were excused or had their service deferred after telling Judge Jim Hardin that serving would pose an undue hardship. They included a pregnant woman, a physician who treats veterans and a single grandparent raising twins alone.

    One man said he was too sleepy to pay attention and wanted to go home. He lost his appeal.

    “Can I come back tomorrow?” he asked. “I just want to get some sleep.”

    Hardin replied: “Sir, I’m going to ask you to sit back down and come back tomorrow.”

    No jurors had been seated when court adjourned for the day.

    The jury selection process resumes this morning.

    http://www.heraldsun.com/news/localn...cted-plea-deal
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  4. #14
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Slain Duke grad student's savings account was drained

    DURHAM, N.C.
    — Someone made three ATM withdrawals totaling $520 from the savings account of Abhijit Mahato early on the morning of Jan. 18, 2008 – more than 21 hours before friends found him shot to death in his Durham home, a former police investigator testified Monday.

    Related:
    Full video: Lovette murder trial
    Full coverage: Abhijit Mahato murder case
    Prosecutor: Duke student's death 'intentional, deliberate, premeditated'

    Art Holland, a detective who worked financial crimes for the Durham Police Department, told jurors on the second day of testimony in Laurence Lovette's murder trial that just a little more than $5 remained in the 29-year-old Duke graduate student's account.

    His checking account, which had a balance of more than $4,000, however, was untouched.

    Security video of an ATM on University Drive – approximately 2 miles from Mahato's Anderson Street apartment – at the exact time of those withdrawals showed what appeared to be a light-colored Mercedes pulling up and staying for about three minutes, Holland said. No one was recorded on the video.

    The first withdrawal, at 2:12 a.m., was for $200, Holland said. The second, at 2:13 a.m., was for $60, and the third, at 2:14 a.m., was for $260.

    Durham prosecutors say Lovette, 23, targeted Mahato from outside Mahato's apartment and took him to the ATM before returning to the apartment and shooting him once in the head.

    "Mr. Lovette just didn't intend to rob Abhijit Mahato. He decided he was going to eliminate the witness and kill him in cold blood with absolutely no provocation," Assistant District Attorney Jim Dornfried said during opening statements Friday. "And that's what this case is about."

    Peggy Maybrey – the mother of Demario Atwater, Lovette's co-defendant in the March 5, 2008, robbery and shooting death of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill senior Eve Carson – testified Monday afternoon that she saw Lovette driving a gray Mercedes in January 2008.

    Her 22-year-old son, Phillip Maybrey, testified Monday that he admitted in a September 2013 police interview that he was with Lovette the night of Mahato’s death. But Phillip Maybrey said he lied because investigators deceived him when they showed up at his job telling him they wanted to talk to him about another case.

    "I felt very offended and disrespected, because I'd been lied to," Phillip Maybrey said. "They could have come to me like a man and said we want to talk to you about this murder."

    Phillip Maybrey has not been charged in Mahato's death, and Dornfried said in court that he's not been offered immunity or any kind of deal in exchange for his testimony.

    Later this week, jurors are expected to hear from Atwater's ex-girlfriend, Shanita Love, who Dornfried said Friday led investigators to charge Lovette when he was arrested March 13, 2008, for Carson's murder.

    Dornfried said Love told police that she heard Lovette talking about how he and Phillip Maybrey took Mahato to the ATM, withdrew money and returned to Mahato's apartment.

    She's expected to take the stand outside the presence of the jury on Tuesday, when the Superior Court Judge Jim Hardin will decide how her testimony and Carson's murder will be presented to the jury.

    That could take most of the day, and Hardin ordered jurors not to report for duty Tuesday and to check at in at the end of the day to find out about when they need to return Wednesday.

    Carson, 22, was shot five times in a Chapel Hill neighborhood near the UNC campus on the morning of March 5, 2008, after a nearly two-hour ordeal in which Lovette and Atwater kidnapped her from her home and drove her to two ATMs, where Lovette withdrew $700 from her bank account.

    Atwater pleaded guilty to the crime in 2010, and Lovette was convicted in December 2011. Both men are serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    Read more at http://www.wral.com/slain-duke-stude...g07kVIV6Kkr.99
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #15
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Durham police lay out robbery allegations in Lovette murder trial

    DURHAM — Nineteen hours before friends found Abhijit Mahato shot to death in his apartment, three withdrawals were made from his bank account within minutes of each other.

    Art Holland, a former Durham police detective, testified Monday at the trial of Laurence Lovette, the 23-year-old man accused of murdering Mahato on Jan. 18, 2008.

    Mahato was found by his friends with a single gunshot wound between his eyes. Medical examiners say the fatal injury came from a gun fired through a pillow pushed against Mahato’s face.

    Lovette, who is an N.C. prison inmate serving a life sentence, was convicted in 2011 of kidnapping, robbing and murdering Eve Carson, the UNC-Chapel Hill student body president found shot to death almost two months after Mahato.

    According to testimony Monday, the withdrawals were made at 2:12 a.m., 2:13 a.m. and 2:14 a.m. on Jan. 19, 2008, from an ATM on University Drive, almost two miles from the apartment where Mahato lived while in graduate school at Duke.

    Holland said the first withdrawal was $200, the second was $60 and the third for $260.

    Security video from the ATM showed a light-colored Mercedes stopped there for three minutes as the withdrawals were made. But the videos showed no individuals on the scene.

    Defense attorneys raised questions about the date stamp on the ATM video and tried to discredit testimony that could explain the difference.

    Investigators contend that Lovette stopped Mahato outside his apartment, took him to the ATM machine before going back to the Anderson Complex apartment and killing the engineering student from India.

    One case tied to another

    It was the investigation into Carson’s death that led investigators to Lovette.

    Police in Chapel Hill and Durham say Shanita Love, the girlfriend of Mario Atwater, Lovette’s convicted conspirator in the Carson murder, linked Lovette to the Mahato killing.

    Love, who testified at Lovette’s trial in Orange County in the Carson murder case, told investigators that she heard the defendant talk about Mahato’s being dead inside his apartment.

    Around the time Mahato died, Durham police were investigating a robbery spree across the city, with victims complaining about a level of violence that troubled investigators.

    Jim Dornfried, an assistant Durham district attorney, said during his opening statement that Lovette had not only intended to rob Mahato. Dornfried said the defendant also wanted to “eliminate the witness” to the robbery “and kill him in cold blood.”

    Witnesseses probed

    Defense attorneys for Lovette contend there is no forensic evidence inside Mahato’s apartment or from any of the surveillance cameras.

    The defense has also questioned the credibility of Love and other key witnesses for prosecutors. On Monday one of those witnesses, Phillip Mabrey, Atwater’s brother, took the stand to respond to inconsistencies in the account he gave police years ago and what he is saying now.

    Prosecutors and defense attorneys questioned Mabrey out of jurors’ presence. He told the court he had lied in his past account that put him closer to the scene than he now admits and apologized for doing so.

    In the Carson case, investigators said Lovette and Atwater forced the UNC-Chapel Hill senior into her SUV early in the morning on March 8, 2008, then forced her to withdraw money from several ATMS in the area before shooting her to death in the middle of a quiet Chapel Hill street.

    Prosecutors said they thought Carson, who had been studying into the wee hours of the morning, had tried to flee her captors. She was shot four times by Lovette, according to the Orange County trial, as she ran in a dark, wooded neighborhood.

    Atwater is said to have fired the fifth shot. He entered guilty pleas without being tried, agreeing to a life sentence in federal prison for murdering, kidnapping and robbing Carson rather than risk a possible death penalty.

    In the Chapel Hill case, security cameras captured images of Lovette and Atwater, according to trial testimony.

    Investigators say Lovette withdrew $700 from Carson’s account.

    Atwater kin testify

    The Durham case, though, relies largely on the testimony of witnesses with criminal records.

    Durham detectives say that though Mahato’s checking account had more than $4,000 in it at his death and was untouched by his captor, a different account only had $5 in it after the three quick withdrawals.

    During the first two days of testimony, prosecutors have called emergency workers and Durham detectives in a trial that is expected to last for weeks.

    Two of three of Atwater’s family members on the witness list took the stand Monday.

    Atwater’s mother, Peggy Atwater, testified that she saw her son’s co-defendant driving a blue Mercedes in January 2008, but officers told her it was blue-gray.

    Prosecutors had planned to call Atwater’s sister as their next witness but she did not show up for court.

    Love is expected to testify on Tuesday outside the jury’s presence.

    The jury is expected to be back Wednesday or Thursday.

    Judge Jim Hardin, the Durham Superior Court judge overseeing the trial, issued a warrant for the arrest of Tikoya Atwater, the sister of Demario Atwater who did not show up for court on Monday despite a subpoena ordering her there.

    http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/07/21/4020769/lovette-murder-trial-includes.html


    Last edited by Helen; 07-22-2014 at 07:08 PM.
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  6. #16
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    Woman tells judge Lovette admitted killing Duke grad student

    DURHAM — Shanita Love, who is expected to be a key witness in the murder trial of Laurence Alvin Lovette, told a judge Tuesday that she overheard Lovette say he shot and killed Duke graduate student Abhijit Mahato in 2008.

    “It was said that he had shot the man, but he put a pillow to the gun, and I believe he shot him in the upper body part, like around the head,” Love testified.

    Lovette, 23, is on trial for the robbery and slaying of Mahato, who was a graduate student from India studying engineering at Duke University when his friends discovered his body in his apartment on Anderson Street on Jan. 18, 2008. He had been shot in the head.

    Lovette and Love’s former boyfriend, Demario Atwater, are serving life sentences for killing UNC-Chapel Hill Student Body President Eve Carson on March 5, 2008. According to Love, Atwater was not involved in the killing of Mahato, but his younger brother Philip Mabrey was.

    Mabrey, who was 14 or 15 at the time of the Mahato homicide, has not been charged in the case.

    It was an unusual day in the courtroom Tuesday. The jury was not present to hear Love’s testimony, and at times, the judge was not in the courtroom as Lovette’s attorneys played audio and video recordings of Love being interviewed by various law enforcement officers in 2008 and 2009.

    They played the recordings so Love could refresh her memory about what she told investigators six years ago. When she finished listening to the recordings, Superior Court Judge Jim Hardin returned to the courtroom, and Love returned to the stand to continue her testimony.

    Hardin heard Love’s testimony as well as testimony from police officers and other witnesses without the jury being present so he can decide whether jurors should hear all or only part of that testimony.

    Under questioning by Assistant District Attorney Jim Dornfried, Love said she had moved in with Atwater at the apartment he shared with his mother, Peggy Mabrey, and her other children, including Philip Mabrey, in late 2007.

    On Jan. 18, 2008, Love said she was getting ready for work when other people in the apartment, including Lovette, began talking about Philip Mabrey, who didn’t come home that night. Atwater and Lovette left to look for him and then returned a short time later to take Love to work.

    As they got into the vehicle, she heard Lovette say he and Philip Mabrey had killed a guy that stayed in the Anderson Apartments, she said.

    “They had taken him to an ATM machine and took him back to the apartment,” she said.

    Atwater drove her to her job at a sub shop across from Duke Hospital with Lovette in the back seat, and as they drove past the Anderson Apartments, they all looked over to see whether any police officers were there, she said.

    “He said there was no activity as far as a crime scene, so the body was not found yet,” she said.

    Under cross-examination by Lovette’s attorney, Karen Bethea-Shields, Love admitted she initially told law enforcement officers investigating Carson’s slaying that she knew nothing about “the Durham murder” and that Lovette was not involved in it.

    Later, however, when she was in a car with Chapel Hill Police Investigator Celisa Lehew, who was the lead investigator in the Carson case, Love told Lehew she had overheard Lovette telling Atwater that he and Philip Mabrey had killed Mahato.

    The hearing without the jury present is scheduled to continue at 9 a.m. Wednesday. It’s expected the jurors will return to the courtroom about 11 a.m. to continue hearing testimony.

    http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/07/...-admitted.html


    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  7. #17
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Judge allows Eve Carson evidence in Lovette murder trial

    DURHAM, N.C.
    — A Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that jurors in Laurence Lovette's murder trial could hear from a key state witness, despite arguments from defense attorneys that the information offers very little value in identifying their client as Abhijit Mahato's murderer and that the testimony unfairly damages his right to a fair trial.

    "The prejudicial effect is enormous," attorney Kevin Bradley told Judge Jim Hardin during a hearing to keep out of trial evidence about the 2008 robbery and murder of Eve Carson, who was killed two months after Mahato was found dead in his apartment near Duke University.

    But prosecutors said the evidence – as well as testimony about another shooting and the theft of a Mercedes – helps shows that Lovette had the opportunity, preparation, intent and knowledge to commit the crime and that the testimony of their witness – Shanita Love – helps tie all the evidence together and to link Lovette to it.

    "It is clear, it is relevant. It is necessary, and the probative value does not substantially outweigh the danger of prejudice," Durham County Assistant District Attorney Storm Ellis told Hardin.
    Hardin agreed, ruling jurors could hear all the evidence.

    Lovette, 23, was arrested in Mahato's Jan. 18, 2008, death on March 13, 2008, eight days after Carson was robbed and killed in a similar manner.

    Both victims were college students – Mahato an engineering graduate student at Duke and Carson a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – both were kidnapped from their homes, both were taken to ATMs to withdraw hundreds of dollars and both were shot – Mahato once to the head and Carson five times.

    Lovette and Demario Atwater, who is Love’s ex-boyfriend, are both serving life in prison for Carson’s murder

    http://www.wral.com/judge-allows-eve...rial/13834052/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  8. #18
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    Prosecutors link stolen Mercedes to Duke grad student's death

    DURHAM, N.C.
    — A woman whose car was stolen a day before Abhijit Mahato was found shot to death six years ago testified Thursday that she was asleep in her bed when someone broke into her Durham home and took the keys from her purse that had been in the upstairs room where she lay.

    Margie Scott told jurors in the murder trial of Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr. that she awoke on the morning of Jan. 17, 2008, to a side door damaged and her emptied purse on the downstairs floor of her den. The keys were missing, and so was the 1999 silver

    Mercedes Benz that had been parked in her driveway when she went to bed around 11 p.m. the night prior.

    "I was devastated, then, because that's when I realized someone was in the house and they were in our bedroom while we were sleeping, and we heard nothing," she said.

    Scott said she also awoke around 3 a.m. that day and noticed lights on in her office, where a couple of desk drawers were also open, and another room across the hall.

    "At that time, I just thought maybe we forgot to turn off the lights,” she said. “But I said, 'We sure left a lot of lights on' but wasn't thinking anything out of the ordinary."

    Police later recovered the Mercedes, but by that time, Mahato had been robbed and shot in the head after $520 in ATM withdrawals from his savings account.

    Prosecutors seeking a first-degree murder conviction of the 23-year-old Lovette contend he was in Scott's car when he withdrew the money from Mahato's account around 2:15 a.m. the morning of the murder.

    Witnesses say Lovette admitted to breaking into a home and stealing a Mercedes while a woman was asleep, and they also say he admitted to killing Mahato after seeing the 29-year-old Duke University graduate student outside his apartment.

    Defense attorneys, however, contend the state has no evidence linking their client to Mahato's death. There was no DNA or fingerprints and no eyewitness to the crime. The state's key witness is not credible, they say, because she initially told police she knew nothing about the crime. Later, however, she provided several details to the contrary.

    However, prosecutors – who could wrap up their case as early as Friday – say Lovette targeted Mahato with the intention of killing him.

    "Mr. Lovette just didn't intend to rob Abhijit Mahato," Durham Assistant District Attorney Jim Dornfried said in opening statements last week. "He decided he was going to eliminate the witness and kill him in cold blood with absolutely no provocation. And that's what this case is about."

    http://www.wral.com/prosecutors-link...eath/13836742/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  9. #19
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Lovette defense: State 'fell short' on meeting burden of proof

    DURHAM, N.C. — Closing arguments were underway Monday morning in the trial of a Durham man accused of robbing and killing a Duke University graduate student inside his apartment more than six years ago.

    Durham County prosecutors say Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr., targeted Abhijit Mahato, on the morning of Jan. 18, 2008, kidnapped the 29-year-old, drove him to an ATM and withdrew $520 before shooting him once in the head.

    Defense attorneys, however, say there's no solid evidence – DNA, fingerprints or eyewitnesses – to link Lovette to the crime and that the state's case rests on the testimony of one woman who is not a credible witness.

    That witness, Shanita Love, testified that Lovette admitted to robbing and killing Mahato and also said he stole a car that police believe Lovette used to commit the crime.

    A shell casing found next to Mahato's body was fired from the same 9 mm Luger handgun that was used in a shooting a day after Mahato's death. Love testified that Lovette also admitted to that shooting.

    "The state promised you that they'd give you all the elements you need to return a guilty verdict in this case," attorney Karen Bethea-Shields said. "They fell short of that promise and because they fell short of that promise, they did not meet their burden of proof.

    Lovette is already serving life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted in December 2011 for the death of Eve Carson. The 22-year-old University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill senior was shot five times on the morning of March 5, 2008, after she, too, was kidnapped and taken to several ATMs.

    Love's testimony was also critical in that case and was central to the current trial as well.

    "Don't get it twisted. This case is not about the murder of Eve Carson," Bethea-Shields said. "The state has played a shell game of presenting you with evidence of another case. Don't be confused."

    http://www.wral.com/closing-argument...rial/13844848/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  10. #20
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Jury Deliberations Begin in Laurence Lovette Murder Trial

    By: Heather Moore

    DURHAM—The fate of Laurence Lovette is now in the hands of the jury as deliberations began Monday afternoon.

    Lovette is accused of robbing and killing Duke graduate student Abhijit Mahato in 2008. He is charged with first-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon.

    Both sides say this case comes down to whether or not jurors believe one of the state's key witnesses. The defense began their closing arguments Monday morning since they did not present any evidence during the trial.

    Lovette is charged with robbing and killing Mahato in 2008, a couple of months before he killed UNC student body president Eve Carson.

    http://charlotte.twcnews.com/content...-murder-trial/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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