One of the men convicted in the 2008 killing of Student Body President Eve Carson will serve the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr. was first sentenced to life in prison in December 2011, but the N.C. Court of Appeals ruled the judge and jury were not able to consider mitigating factors related to Lovette’s age. He was 17 at the time of the crime.
On Monday, N.C. Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour upheld Lovette’s sentence.
Lovette was convicted on charges of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, felony larceny and armed robbery.
But in February, the Court of Appeals vacated Lovette’s life sentence.
The court’s opinion in that ruling stemmed from the 2012 U.S. Supreme Court case, Miller v. Alabama. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a mandatory life sentence without parole for offenders younger than 18 constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
But Baddour argued Lovette represented an extreme case in which the findings in Miller did not apply. Baddour also said he doubted whether rehabilitation was possible for Lovette.
Co-defender Demario James Atwater, who was 21 at the time for the murder, is serving two life sentences after pleading guilty to the crime in 2011.
