Confession of suspect in Auburn student slaying read in court

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) – The man charged with capital murder in the killing of an Auburn University student told authorities he abducted her on campus, robbed her and forced her to disrobe before he shot her, according to documents read in court Monday.
The confession from Courtney Lockhart, 23, was read during a Lee County circuit court hearing while several thousand Auburn students gathered on campus at a memorial service for Lauren Burk, the 18-year-old freshman from Marietta, Ga., who was killed last Tuesday night.
Burk, who lived in an apartment complex near the campus, was found on a roadside about five miles from the university and her car was found later burning in a campus parking lot.
The documents read in court, sworn to by a police detective, said Lockhart described verbally and in writing how he abducted Burk at the university, robbed her and drove her around, told her to take her clothes off and shot her with a handgun.
He also described driving the car back to the Auburn campus and setting it on fire.
According to the affidavit, Lockhart was in possession of a pistol that has been linked to the murder when he was arrested Saturday.
His defense attorneys, including main lawyer Joel Collins of Phenix City, could not be reached immediately for comment.
At the memorial service, at times emotionally wrenching, uplifting and somber, an estimated six thousand students gathered in the university’s basketball arena to remember Burk and say goodbye.
“Her smile was contagious, all of us know that, and she could brighten a room,” said Alison Penuel, president of the Delta Gamma sorority at Auburn that Burk joined in August. “She touched all of us in a special way.”
When Penuel began struggling to speak through tears, Auburn President Jay Gogue got up and put his around her to help her finish. Sniffles, coughs and crying could be heard in the auditorium between speakers.