Murder victim Eve Carson; killers blew the right side of her pretty face off
Probe says "red flags" overlooked
By: Shelvia Dancy
News14
Both 21-year-old Demario Atwater and 17-year-old Laurence Lovette were out on probation when Carson was killed, and both had been arrested multiple times after being placed on probation for separate breaking and entering charges.
RALEIGH -- A new report from the state Department of Corrections concludes probation officials overlooked multiple "red flags" while supervising the two men accused of murdering UNC Chapel Hill student body president Eve Carson.
Both 21-year-old Demario Atwater and 17-year-old Laurence Lovette were out on probation when Carson was killed, and both had been arrested multiple times after being placed on probation for separate breaking and entering charges. Atwater began probation in 2005, while Lovette was placed on probation in January 2008.
"The supervision of Mr. Atwater on probation by this division is extremely disappointing. It's flat-out embarrassing," said Robert Guy, director of the state Department of Correction's Division of Community Corrections. "As many as 10 staff, including officers, supervisors and management touched this case and saw those deficiencies and red flags and did not address them. That is unacceptable."
The report concluded probation officers did not make sure that Atwater met the terms of his probation, which required weekly meetings with a probation officer.
"The standards that were not met - mandatory curfew was part of the intensive sanction [but that was] never imposed for Mr. Atwater," Guy said. "Weekly contacts with the offender, never met by my staff. Warrantless searches of the offender, never conducted for Mr. Atwater."
He said his department "also failed to verify the county of residence and transfer the case to Durham according to policy and procedure, despite the fact that Mr. Atwater himself came in and kept telling us he's living in Durham."
The report also faults officials for not immediately revoking Atwater's probation after he was convicted of felony possession of a firearm in June of 2007.
"Our staff in Wake County was notified by Granville County probation staff of that conviction the day he was sentenced and he was put on intensive supervision again," Guy explained. "They were told by computer as well as telephone that 'we've got him he's here, what do you want us to do with him,' and you'll see that in the report. We just told them to come in next month for a contact. That's unacceptable."
[Atwater, left; Lovette, right.] A new report from the state Department of Corrections concludes probation officials overlooked multiple "red flags" while supervising the two men accused of murdering UNC Chapel Hill student body president Eve Carson.
The report pointed out that Atwater's case was transferred to several probation officers, and at one point a year passed without anyone making contact with him. Guy said the report found more unacceptable issues in Lovette's file.
"He was under the supervision of the Durham probation office for two months prior to his arrest for the murders of Carson and [Duke graduate student Abhijit] Mahato," Guy explained. "Only one face-to-face contact occurred with Lovette. That was the day of processing."
The report also pointed out that Lovette's probation officer had been on the job only seven months when she was assigned his case, and had not yet undergone basic training even though she supervised 127 cases. She was placed on desk duty March 7 for a driving-while-impaired arrest in December. Guy said her job status did not change sooner because his office did not know about that arrest until February.
"Had it been reported timely to my office, the officer in question would have been placed on a desk in December of '07," Guy said. "She would never have been assigned the Lovette case, so she should have been on a desk in December 07 -- that didn't occur."
Guy said the Carson case has left a dark cloud over his agency, but he said even if officials had followed every policy timely, there are no guarantees.
"If we had done everything timely in Atwater and Lovette, according to policy, we can speculate all we want to, but there's no guarantee they would not have been on the street in March 2008," he said. "I just cannot guarantee that."
Guy said since April 1, the department's investigation has expanded to include offices in both Durham and Wake counties.
"District management has been reassigned pending the conclusion of this investigation," he said, noting that a three-person team of veteran managers has taken over their work temporarily.
Guy said no one has been fired, "not yet."
"Appropriate action will be imposed as we complete independent reviews during this process," Guy said. "We will begin immediate corrective action based on our findings as we complete those findings."
Previously, at WEJB/NSU:
"One of Eve Carson's Killers Gets Sentenced to Life Until Parole";
"Eve Carson Murder Suspect Trial Date Set";
"Laurence Lovette to Stand Trial in Eve Carson Murder";
"Upcoming, Diversity-Based Murder Trials the National MSM are Ignoring";
"Laurence Lovette Jr. Pleads Not Guilty to Murdering Eve Carson";
"Jury Selection Begins in Eve Carson Murder Trial";
"Trial Starts in Eve Carson Murder";
"Videos from the Trials of Laurence Lovette Jr. and Demario Atwater for the Murder of Eve Carson";
"How the Cops Got on Laurence Lovette Jr.'s Trail: An Eve Carson Murder Trial Update":
"HLN Covers the Eve Carson Murder Trial on the Air, but Not at Its Web Site";
"Medical Examiner, Friend of Laurence Lovette Testify in Eve Carson Murder Trial";
"Eve Carson Wanted to Pray with Her Killers";
"We Have a Match! Laurence Lovette's DNA was Found in Eve Carson's SUV";
"Prosecution, Defense Rest in Eve Carson Murder Trial; Closing Arguments to Come on Monday"; and
"N.C. Criminal Justice System Failed Eve Carson: Killer and Defendant were
Repeatedly Arrested, Even Convicted While on Probation, Without being Jailed."
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