Suspect's mom to Burk family: 'I am sorry'

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Iraq service changed suspect in Burk's death, mom says
'My heart goes out to her family'

By STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Published on: 03/09/08

The mother of the man charged with killing Auburn University student Lauren Burk said her son was an Iraq war veteran who was changed after his service, and she offered an apology to the freshman's family.

Catherine Williams, the mother of suspect Courtney Larrell Lockhart, made the apology to Lauren Burk's family in an interview with Columbus, Ga., television station WTVM.

The Auburn Plainsman

(ENLARGE)

The funeral for Lauren Burk, a freshman at Auburn University, is today.

Opelika-Auburn News

(ENLARGE)

Murder suspect Courtney Lockhart, 23, is taken into custody.

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UNC MURDER

"I am sorry that Courtney did that. ... First let me say I'm sorry to the Burk family for Courtney taking, taking their child. ... My heart goes out to her family," Williams said in a tearful interview.

But she also said her son did not confess anything to her.

Lockhart, 23, was arrested Friday in Phenix City, Ala., and was charged with capital murder in Burk's abduction and shooting death last Tuesday evening. Police would not say what led them to charge him in her death.

Hours before Lockhart arrest, an elderly woman was robbed and carjacked at a Wal-Mart in Newnan, about 35 miles southwest of Atlanta, on Friday morning. Newnan police reportedly issued a lookout for Lockhart's vehicle after that incident.

Burk, an 18-year-old from Marietta, was found shot on the side of an off-campus road Tuesday night outside Auburn, and her car was found burning in a campus parking lot.

Williams told the television station that her son hasn't been the same after serving 16 months in Iraq. She says her son had been living with her in Smiths, Ala., since returning from the war. Smiths is outside Phenix City and about 30 miles southeast of Auburn.

Lockhart was being held with bail set at $250,000, police said, and may face additional charges in several robberies -- including the one at the Newnan Wal-Mart.

There was no immediate word if he had a lawyer to speak for him; if he is indigent, a lawyer could be appointed at a Lee County Circuit Court hearing Monday in Auburn.

One neighbor who grew up with Lockhart told the AJC he was a troublemaker who liked to pick on younger boys. But another said Lockhart seemed like a good kid who mowed his family's lawn and always said hello to her at Wal-Mart.

"That's crazy," said another neighbor, Thomas Moore, 19, who said Lockhart bullied him as a youngster, too. "I wouldn't have believed that."

WRBL, a station in nearby Columbus, Ga., also reported that Lockhart, a 2003 high school graduate, spent three years in the Army but was dishonorably discharged for punching a sergeant.

But no official account of his military record had been released by authorities.

Family friends of Burk said she had left her boyfriend's apartment Tuesday evening and planned to go to the library but never made it. Burk's funeral is 5:30 p.m. today at Marietta's Temple Kol Emeth.

Her murder rocked the quiet college town and drew enough interest that Auburn police assembled a task force of local, state and federal investigators to find her killer.

But it was police officers from Phenix City who caught and arrested Lockhart on Friday.

"I wouldn't call it a lucky break," Auburn police Assistant Chief Tommy Dawson said Saturday in announcing Lockhart's arrest. "I would call it a blessing from God."

Police charged Lockhart with three crimes: capital murder during a kidnapping, capital murder during a robbery and capital murder during an attempted rape.

Lockhart's case will be presented to a grand jury on May 5. He is being held in the Russell County jail but is expected to be moved next week to the jail in Lee County, where records show he served time in 2002 for harassment.

Lockhart did not know the 18-year-old Burk, and he acted alone, police said. Aside from that, police are releasing few details.

Dawson would not say how investigators linked Lockhart to the crime. He did say police have "a lot of evidence," but declined to elaborate.

"We have the right individual in jail," Dawson said. "I'm 100 percent sure of that."

Police say they do not believe there is any link between Burk's slaying the shooting death the next day of University of North Carolina student from Athens, Ga., Eve Carson, in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Lockhart was arrested late Friday morning after he led Phenix City police on a high-speed chase. He declined comment as officers walked him out of the Phenix City police station and put him in the back of a cruiser on his way to jail late Friday night.

Lockhart was initially pulled over for speeding in Phenix City, but he took off in his silver Chrysler Sebring when two other investigators were called to the scene. Backup was brought in because Lockhart's vehicle matched the description of one that was involved in a recent robbery, Phenix City police Lt. Curt Lewis said.

Police in Newnan said they had issued a lookout for Lockhart's Sebring after an elderly woman was robbed outside a WalMart just off I-85 near the Coweta County city.

Newnan police said 72-year-old Marjorie Llewellyn of Newnan was pistol-whipped and briefly kidnapped at gunpoint during an armed robbery and attempted carjacking earlier in the day, the Newnan Times-Herald reported. The incident took place shortly before 10 a.m. Friday.

After trying to outrun Phenix City police, Lockhart didn't get far. Police believe his engine blew out, forcing him to get out of the car and run, Lewis said.

That chase, too, was short. With an officer close behind him, Lockhart stopped, hit the ground and put his hands behind his back, Lewis said.

Lockhart later confessed to other robberies in the area, Lewis said.

— Staff writers Tim Eberly, David Markiewicz and Jeffry Scott and the Associated Press contributed to this article.