After spending more than eight years in prison telling people he was innocent, Mark Carver won a second chance Wednesday to convince a jury he did not kill a UNC Charlotte college student more than a decade ago.

Carver did not show any emotion as Superior Court Judge Chris Bragg announced his decision, at one point reportedly asking his attorney if the ruling had gone in his favor, said Chris Mumma, the director of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence who took up Carver's case three years ago.

Another judge sentenced Carver to life in prison after a Gaston County jury convicted the former Gaston County resident of first-degree murder in March 2011 for the killing of 20-year-old Ira Yarmolenko nearly three years earlier. Carver had already lost appeals for a new trial in the state Supreme Court and state Court of Appeals.

But Bragg ruled Carver received ineffective counsel at his trial from attorney Brent Ratchford and found new guidelines regarding the analysis of DNA evidence significant enough to warrant granting the 51-year-old Carver a new trial.

Ratchford, who testified during a two-week evidentiary hearing held in April on which Bragg based his decision, did not attend court Wednesday and declined to comment afterward.

Carver's friend, Melanie Brafford, cried from the courtroom as Bragg issued his ruling from the bench. She was one of about 30 who came to show support for Carver.

"I just wanted to shout," Brafford said afterward. "I want to cry. I want to smile. I want to laugh. I just want Mark to come home. It's time for Mark to come home... The truth's finally coming out after all these years."

Bragg ordered that Carver should immediately be released from prison and transferred to Gaston County Jail. He set Carver's bond at $100,000 while he awaits a new trial. Carver, who was expected to stay in jail Wednesday night, was released from custody on an identical bond before his first trial.

District Attorney Locke Bell said he will appeal Bragg's ruling to the North Carolina Court of Appeals. Bell said if his appeal fails, he'll follow through with a new trial.

"He's a very good judge and I respect the judge but I'm very disappointed in it. I disagree with it and at the proper time we will appeal," Bell said outside court.

Mumma likened Bragg's ruling to a "baby step" toward Carver's freedom. She had sought to have the judge declare Carver innocent.

"I've heard that Mr. Bell plans to appeal," Mumma said. "I am shocked to hear that in some ways and then in some ways I'm not surprised because he would never listen to the evidence before the evidentiary hearing... (Carver's) definitely innocent, 100 percent. I would put my career, anything I have on the fact that he is innocent. There is no maybe about it."

Bragg faulted Ratchford on several points raised by Mumma during the April hearing. He said the Gastonia attorney should have investigated Carver's physical ability to commit the crime. Ratchford never obtained medical records for Carver and didn't interview Carver's friends or family about the carpal tunnel syndrome that Carver said debilitated him.

Ratchford also didn't have Carver psychologically evaluated, despite his client having IQ scores ranging between 61 and 73. Ratchford also didn't interview Carver's psychologist, who saw Carver the morning of the killing.

Carver and his cousin, Neal Cassada, were fishing nearby when two people on Jet Skis reporting finding Yarmolenko along the banks of the Catawba River.

Mount Holly Police charged Carver and Cassada months later after reporting they found the two men's DNA located outside and inside Yarmolenko's vehicle. Both Carver and Cassada had told police they had not seen either Yarmolenko or her car that day.

Ratchford "failed to investigate and become familiar with touch DNA," which Bragg said was the only evidence putting Carver at the crime scene that afternoon.

Ratchford had testified that he chose not to have his DNA expert, Dr. Ronald Ostrowski, testify because the late UNC Charlotte professor considered the state's evidence as "good science."

But Ratchford had limited notes from his conversations with Ostrowski and didn't even collect his academic credentials, Bragg said.

Not putting up evidence represented a lack of "professional judgment," Bragg said Wednesday in announcing his decision.

Bragg also cited newer DNA guidelines that might've led the State Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab to rule the sample invalid.

Bell said if Ratchford had introduced medical records, he would've brought in evidence showing that Carver at the time of the killing had the strength to carry 50-pound bags of corn.

Bragg indicated it took a great deal of strength to strangle to death a seemingly fit Yarmolenko, who was found with three ligatures around her neck.

Bell also didn't agree with the notion that DNA evidence was lacking in the case. He stood by the evidence used to convict Carver at trial.

"It's like fingerprints," Bell said. "You can take them off a hand or you can take them off of what they touched. That's what touch DNA is."

Yarmolenko's death seemed like a mystery at the time and questions surrounding her death grew in the seven months between when her body was discovered and the arrests of Carver and Cassada. The case garnered national attention and was featured on real crime TV shows, including "20/20" and "Dateline."

Mumma has a record of helping free people wrongly convicted in murder and rape cases. Her website highlights eight men exonerated in North Carolina after receiving lengthy prison sentences for rape and murder convictions.

She brought with her two of those men, Willie Grimes, a Hickory man who spent 24 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit, and Greg Taylor, a Wake County man who spent 17 years in prison after being falsely convicted of a prostitute's death. Grimes moved to Gastonia after his release from prison in 2012.

Taylor, who like Carver was convicted on the basis of a DNA sample, considers the relationship between Mumma's clients to be like a family.

"Mark is already in the family," Taylor said. "We're just hoping to be able to eat dinner with him."

Carver's cousin, Cassada, also faced a first-degree murder charge in Yarmolenko's death. He suffered a fatal heart attack the day before his trial was to begin.

You can reach Adam Lawson at 704-869-1842 or on Twitter @GazetteLawson.