Update Feb. 14 – 4:30 p.m. –  It appeared that Nicolas Carter was murdered elsewhere then transported to the Big Tujunga Canyon area, said Lt. Mike Orsson, LASD.  It is alleged that while the suspects were digging the first grave, it filled with water forcing the pair to move a little farther where they dug a second grave. This is where investigators found Clark’s body. Orsson confirmed that the large amount of blood found near the scene was Carter’s.

Carter was first reported missing from Glendale and Glendale police assisted LASD Homicide Unit. He  was reportedly acquainted with the suspects.

By Mary O’KEEFE

Two Burbank men were charged Wednesday with the murder of a Glendale man whose remains were found in a shallow grave in the Angeles National Forest in January, the District Attorney’s Office announced.

Erik Thomas Pearson, 21, and Donald Thurman, 26, are awaiting arraignment at Los Angeles Superior Court, Pasadena, in Dept. D. They were charged with one count each of capital murder with the special circumstances of robbery and lying in wait.

The two men are charged with the Jan. 7 murder of Nicholas Carter. The pair allegedly beat Carter to death, dumped his body in the Angeles Forest and stole his credit cards.

Carter’s body was found Jan. 19 off Big Tujunga Canyon Road after a hiker discovered what appeared to be a shallow grave on Jan. 9. Sheriff’s deputies conducted an investigation and found the 25-year-old’s remains several hundred yards from the site of the initial shallow grave.

Pearson and Thurman are being held without bail. Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek the death penalty.