GASTON COUNTY, N.C. - The man who was convicted of killing a UNC-Charlotte student nearly a decade ago, returned to court Thursday.
Mark Carver has been serving a life sentence for the murder of Ira Yarmolenko who was found strangled on the bank of the Catawba River in Gaston County in 2008.
On Thursday, a Gaston County judge listened to arguments over whether Carver deserves a new trial.
An attorney for the NC Center on Actual Innocence plans to say Carver's attorneys did not adequately represent him in his first trial.
During arguments, Carver's attorney requested the state lab re-run electronic data from the DNA testing used in the case.
She also asked that five law enforcement officers associated with the investigation submit their DNA.
The judge agreed to write an order for both requests to be fulfilled.