A unanimous three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals has found no error in the life sentence without parole imposed on Laurence Lovette, one of two men convicted of murdering former UNC-Chapel Hill student body president Eve Carson. This was the second time the appeals court had considered Lovette’s case.
Appellate judges had vacated Lovette’s original life sentence during his first appeal. The judges at that time cited a new state law responding to a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court case. This time around, the Appeals Court said the trial judge had handed down a new life sentence without parole “after making extensive findings of fact as to any potential mitigating factors revealed by the evidence.”
Among other Appeals Court opinions released this morning:
- A unanimous three-judge panel affirmed a trial court’s ruling against Asheville in a dispute over the firing of a city police officer in 2010.
- A unanimous three-judge panel affirmed the N.C. State Bar’s decision to disbar attorney Geoffrey Simmons for embezzling clients’ funds.
Among unpublished opinions with limited precedential value:
- A unanimous three-judge panel affirmed a trial court’s ruling favoring Williamston in an annexation dispute.
- A unanimous three-judge panel reversed a trial court and ruled in favor of UNC-Charlotte in a suit involving dismissal of a campus police officer.
- A unanimous three-judge panel ruled against the Town of Trent Woods in a dispute involving flood damage linked to a public sewer pump station.
