Pit driver faces 21 to 33 years in prison

HILLSBOROUGH -- Mohammed Taheri-Azar pleaded guilty to nine counts of attempted first-degree murder Tuesday for driving a rented SUV into a lunchtime crowd on campus in March 2006.

Taheri-Azar, 25, will likely face 21 to 33 years in prison. Superior Court Judge Carl Fox scheduled his sentencing for Aug. 26 at 9:30 a.m.

As part of a plea bargain, prosecutors dropped nine counts of aggravated felonious assault charges.

According to a plea transcript, Fox indicated he would be willing to consolidate the nine charges into two attempted murder charges for sentencing purposes. The maximum penalty for each charge is 40 years in prison, but Taheri-Azar's sentence will be lower because he has no prior felony record.

After the attacks, Taheri-Azar, a U.S. citizen born in Iran, claimed he was following Allah in avenging the U.S. government's killing of Muslims around the world.

Later, he called his court-appointed attorney, public defender James Williams, a "moron" and refused to cooperate with psychologists. A judge ordered a psychiatric evaluation, which found him competent to stand trial in June 2006.

He had another mental evaluation this spring, but the results were sealed and may not be released unless Williams thinks they would support a lesser sentence for his client.

Taheri-Azar was released from Dorothea Dix Hospital last month and is in custody at North Carolina Central Prison.

DA to seek death for accused killer

No Orange County jury has sent a man to death row since 1973. District Attorney Jim Woodall wants to give execution another chance.

Woodall said Monday he plans to seek the death penalty for 22-year-old Demario Atwater in the killing of Eve Carson, the UNC student body president.

Superior Court Judge Thomas Lock approved Woodall's plan to prosecute Atwater on a capital murder charge after the district attorney claimed that three legal factors made the killing merit lethal injection. Woodall said Atwater killed Carson while robbing her, for financial gain and in an "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel" manner.

Woodall said that Atwater and Laurence Lovette were walking along East Rosemary Street about 3:30 a.m. March 5 looking for someone to rob when they spotted a light in Eve Carson's house down a short dead-end street, Woodall said.

"The blinds on the windows were raised that morning," he said. "They could see a person in that house."

Someone, probably Carson, opened an e-mail on her account at 3:35 a.m. Twenty minutes later, Lovette was caught on camera using Carson's ATM card, and an hour after that, Carson was dead.

Neither of Atwater's attorneys, James Williams or Jonathan Broun, addressed Woodall's list of aggravating factors.

Edwards won't return to UNC poverty center

CHAPEL HILL --The UNC think tank that once provided John Edwards a platform to discuss poverty issues is not counting on the former Senator and two-time presidential candidate to return to the fold.

The UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity was launched in 2005, and Edwards served as its director until he resigned at the end of 2006 to launch his second run at the Democratic Party's nomination for president.

Edwards' disclosure that he had an affair with campaign videographer Rielle Hunter has had no impact on contributions or grants to the nonpartisan center, said Katie Bowler, assistant dean for communications for UNC's law school.

Edwards has not had a role at the Chapel Hill center since he left it in 2006, Bowler said.

"He continues to support the ideals of the center, but there's no expectation that he will be returning," Bowler said.

rbeckwit@nando.com/align>