Expert: DNA from Eve Carson's SUV matches man on trial for her murder

(CBS/WRAL) HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. - An analyst for the State Bureau of Investigation testified Wednesday that DNA found in Eve Carson's Toyota Highlander was an identical match to that of the man on trial for her murder.

"It is scientifically unreasonable to believe that anyone other than Laurence Lovette Jr. was the donor of the dominant profile on the interior driver-side panel of the Highlander," Ivy McMillian said during testimony in Lovette's first-degree murder trial. 

Pictures: Eve Carson, UNC student, murdered

CBS affiliate WRAL reports that the trial for Lovette is in its sixth day, and the DNA evidence is the only forensic evidence connecting him to Carson at the time. Analysts for SBI said Tuesday in court that they found no traces of fingerprints, hairs or fiber that linked Lovette to the crime.

Orange County prosecutors say, however, that other evidence does connect him, such as ATM surveillance images, a .25 caliber handgun and Lovette's own statements to a witness.

A forensics firearms examiner for the State Bureau of Investigation testified that the pieces of the pistol that police recovered in nearby woods matched spent casings from the crime scene. Two bullets recovered from Carson's body also matched the weapon, he said.

According to authorities, Lovette and another man, Demario Atwater, kidnapped University of North Carolina Chapel Hill student Eve Carson from her home in the early morning hours of Mar. 5, 2008, took her in her SUV to several bank ATMs to withdraw money, and then shot her to death in a neighborhood near campus.

Lovette's childhood friend Jayson McNeil testified Tuesday that Lovette admitted that he and Demario Atwater went to Chapel Hill looking for someone to rob and ambushed Carson as she was walking from her house to her car.

McNiel said in court, "He said the whole time that Eve Carson was in the back seat and that she was pleading for her life and explained that they didn't have to do what they were doing." He said Lovette told him Eve asked her captors to pray with her before they shot her several times with a .25-caliber pistol and a 14-gauge shotgun.

McNiel said Lovette told him they did what they did because she saw their faces.

Complete coverage of Eve Carson on Crimesider