US judge in NC hears arguments in Eve Carson case

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Attorneys for one of the two men charged in the death of the former student body president at the University of North Carolina have asked a judge to consider moving his federal trial out of state.

Multiple media outlets reported that attorneys for Demario Atwater told U.S. District Judge James A. Beaty Jr. in a hearing Wednesday in Winston-Salem that media attention means Atwater wouldn’t get a fair trial. Prosecutors say they’re certain 12 impartial jurors can be found.

Atwater is one of two men accused in the shooting death of 22-year-old Eve Carson of Athens, Ga., in March 2008, but the only one facing trials in both federal and state courts. Carson was shot five times and left several blocks from the campus in Chapel Hill.

Beaty did not rule on the request and did not say when he would do so.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)