Judge at Lovette hearing calls for legislative session on gangs

DURHAM (AP) — The judge presiding at a hearing for a teenager charged with killing two North Carolina college students has pleaded with Gov. Mike Easley to call a special Legislative session on gang violence.

District Court Judge Craig Brown said Friday that 17-year-old Laurence Lovette will get a fair trial. But Brown said from the bench at Lovette's first court appearance that, "I'm sending an SOS to Raleigh. I expect them to hear it."

Brown ordered Lovette held on a $3 million bond. He is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Duke University graduate student Abhijit Mahato and University of North Carolina student body president Eve Carson.

Police also have charged 21-year-old Demario Atwater in Carson's death, and 19-year-old Stephen Lavance Oates in Mahato's death.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)