no doubt this f'er deserves death penalty..you shoot someone point blank in forehead,no doubt of intent
http://www.charlotte.com/local/story/537685.html
DURHAM --
A teenager charged with killing two North Carolina college students appeared in court for the first time Friday, as evidence emerged that one victim was shot at point-blank range in the forehead.
The details of Abhijit Mahato's death were included in an autopsy report released Friday by the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The 29-year-old computational mechanics doctoral student originally from Tatanagar, India, was found dead Jan. 18 inside his apartment a few blocks south of Duke's campus.
"The graduate student was found dead in his apartment with a pillow over his face," the report says. "There is soot surrounding a hole on the pillow. ... The presence of soot on the pillow, along with a few powder particles in the wound track, suggests that the gun was in contact with the pillow, which was held tightly against the face, at the time of the shot."
One of the two suspects in his slaying, 17-year-old Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr. of Durham, was ordered held without bond Friday at his first court appearance on first-degree murder charges.
A few hours earlier, he was in a different courtroom to face charges in the death of Eve Carson, 22, of Athens, Ga. The UNC Chapel Hill student body president was found March 5 in the middle of a residential street about a mile from campus. She had been shot several times, including once in her right temple. Her autopsy results have not been released.
Authorities have also charged Demario James Atwater, 21, of Durham, in Carson's death and Stephen Oates, 19, of Durham, in Mahato's killing. Oates was arrested a few days after Mahato's death, but detectives didn't connect Lovette to the case until police in Chapel Hill began investigating Carson's slaying.
Police and prosecutors have not said who pulled the trigger in either case. In both, robbery appears to be the primary motive.
Wearing an orange jumpsuit with his wrists and ankles shackled, Lovette smiled widely as he was escorted into a police cruiser to be taken back to jail in Durham following his afternoon court appearance in Hillsborough. Like Atwater and Oates, he is being held without bond and was appointed an attorney.
The public defender's offices in Orange and Durham counties did not return calls Friday seeking comment.
Lovette was already facing trial on numerous other charges before his arrest Thursday on the murder charges. Court records show that in the six weeks between Mahato's and Carson's deaths, police arrested and charged him with felonies ranging from burglary to car theft to resisting arrest.
Assistant Durham County prosecutor Tracey Cline said detectives linked Lovette to Mahato through phone records, a vehicle and items stolen from Mahato's apartment. He was arrested in the Carson case after police released two surveillance photos they said show him using Carson's ATM card while driving what appears to be her Toyota Highlander.
At Lovette's first court appearance on Friday, Durham County District Court Judge Craig Brown pleaded with state lawmakers to meet immediately in a special session to address gang violence. "I'm sending an SOS to Raleigh. I expect them to hear it," Brown said from the bench.
The comment came as a surprise to police, who said they have no specific information placing either Atwater or Lovette in a gang.
Before demanding the action on gangs, Brown promised Lovette he would get a fair trial. But legal observers said his words may have tainted the case against Lovette before it even starts.
"It's just not fair to this defendant," said Larry Pozner, a Denver attorney and former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "I'm not expressing any special sympathy for this defendant. But no defendant should have their case mixed up in political sentiments."
