Trial proceedings begin today for Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr., man accused of killing Eve Carson

The first steps in the trial of the second man police accuse of killing former Student Body President Eve Carson will begin today.

Judge Allen Baddour will decide today if mentions of other charges pending against Laurence Alvin Lovette, Jr. will be admissible in court, and on Tuesday, individual jury selection for Lovette’s trial will begin.

Lovette will face charges of first degree murder, armed robbery, first degree kidnapping and felony larceny. He pleaded not guilty to all counts Nov. 17.

Prosecutors say Lovette and Demario James Atwater, who has already been convicted, kidnapped Carson from her house, stole her SUV and took her to a bank to withdraw funds from her account before shooting her five times and leaving her in an intersection about a mile off campus.

Lovette was 17 at the time and can’t get the death penalty.

Lovette is also charged with killing Duke University Graduate student Abhijit Mahato in January 2008. Mahato, a 29-year-old engineering doctoral candidate from India, was found shot to death in his off-campus apartment. Stephen Lavance Oates, Jr. is also charged in the crime.

Lovette’s defense attorney Karen Bethea-Shields said information of pending charges against her client would bias a jury and shouldn’t be discussed.

Bethea-Shields didn’t specify whether she was referring to the Mahato charges.

“The prejudicial impact far outweighs any relevancy that might be arguably made for its admissibility,” Shields argues in her motion.

James Coleman Jr., a law professor at Duke University, said prosecutors might want to include the information for background.

“It might be offered to show a common scheme or to show a common approach to the crime or crimes,” he said.

But he said if the information could sway the jury against Lovette and isn’t vital to the case, it is likely the judge will not permit it.

If it is included and found to be too prejudicial in a court of appeals, it could cause a verdict to be overturned, Coleman said.

“You don’t want to risk it being reversed on appeal,” he said.Baddour will honor another of Shield’s motions — her request for individual questioning when jury selection begins Tuesday.

Shields said in her motion that the high profile nature of the case means many jurors could come in with bias.

District Attorney Jim Woodall, who is leading the prosecution, said he expects jury selection to take four to five days given individual selection. He said he expects the trial to last until or after Christmas.

Bethea-Shields said if jury selection were done in a group — as it typically is for cases in which the death penalty is not an option — potential jurors who know a lot about the case or show significant bias could contaminate the group.

Coleman said if potential jurors “blurt out” prejudiced comments or answers during jury questioning, they could inform or bias others who know less about the case.

Coleman said though most people in Orange County probably know the case’s details, individual selection might help in finding jurors who are “open minded and willing to decide the case on the basis of evidence.”

Bethea-Shields said without the threat of contamination, jury selection will take less time, but Baddour said at a pretrial hearing he isn’t convinced it would be faster.

Contact the City Editor

at city@dailytarheel.com