Trial delay ups pressure on Huguely proceedings

Defense attorneys are expected Friday to continue working to build a case that George Huguely didn’t murder his former girlfriend, Yeardley Love.

The trial was put on hold Thursday when a member of the defense became sick, and the delay will add more pressure in a trial that’s already pressed for time.

“Time is going to be critical from now on,” Judge Edward Hogshire told jurors, adding that court might adjourn in the evening hours for the rest of the week.

Wednesday, even before the public learned of defense attorney Rhonda Quagliana’s illness, the city of Charlottesville posted a notice on the door of the media’s alternate viewing room saying that the trial will “likely” continue to Saturday. If the case is not settled then, the next possible court date is Wednesday. Monday is a holiday, and Tuesday is set aside for grand jury hearings.

Huguely is accused of killing Love, who was found dead in her apartment just after 2 a.m. on May 3, 2010. Love and Huguely, now 24, were both fourth-year University of Virginia lacrosse players just weeks away from graduation.

Huguely is facing charges of first-degree murder, felony murder, robbery, burglary, statutory burglary and grand larceny.

In his opening statement, Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman painted a picture of Huguely as a violent, jealous ex-boyfriend, while the defense argued that Huguely visited Love with good intentions that had a tragic outcome.

Perhaps the most dramatic testimony of the trial so far came from Love’s roommate and fellow lacrosse player Caity Whiteley, who recounted finding Love’s body.

“There were cuts on her face and it was just messed up,” she said. Love’s body was warm, but her feet were cold, Whiteley testified.

Witness testimony outlined the tumultuous nature of the on-again, off-again relationship between Huguely and Love.

Michael Burns, a 2011 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a former lacrosse player, said that he visited friends in Charlottesville, including Love, in late February 2010. He said that he and Love had “hooked up” a few times over the course of their friendship, but never dated.

He was at a social gathering at Huguely’s apartment when he heard a woman yelling for help in Huguely’s room.

Burns testified that he opened Huguely’s bedroom door and found him lying on his back with Love lying on her back directly on top of him. He said that Huguely had his arm wrapped around Love’s neck, restraining her, and that she was tugging at his arms in an apparent effort to escape. Huguely released her when Burns opened the door, Burns said.

“She got up and ran out of the room,” he said. “The one thing she said to me when she first got out of there was, ‘Thank you so much.’”

Witnesses also testified to a second conflict in late April in which Love hit Huguely over the head with her purse after finding him talking to two visiting high school girls in his apartment one night.

This incident sparked a series of heated emails between Love and Huguely that culminated with Huguely telling Love, “I should have killed you. You should have killed me.”

The next time Huguely saw Love alone, he did kill her, Chapman said in his opening statement.

Huguely’s teammates testified on Wednesday that Huguely was heavily intoxicated on the day preceding Love’s death. Huguely drank before and during the team’s father-son golf tournament on Sunday morning, and continued to drink while at dinner at C&O Restaurant with his friends and father.

Huguely was so drunk that he knocked over a bottle of wine and caused “a scene” at the restaurant, teammate Ken Clausen said.

Clausen added that on the day before Love’s death, he and Kevin Carroll, Huguely’s roommate, had made plans to talk to Huguely about his drinking habits, which they thought had gotten out of control.

Clausen also testified that he was at Huguely’s apartment just after midnight, moments after Huguely is thought to have left Love’s apartment.

“There’s no doubt in my mind there was a change in his demeanor,” he told jurors.

The prosecution also called a variety of technical witnesses, but hung most of the medical side of its case on a series of three experts: the medical examiner and two neuropathologists, or brain experts.

Their testimony was used to support the idea that Love died from blunt force trauma to her head, which had been the medical examiner’s finding.

The brain experts suggested that Love died because her brain stem was injured when her head whipped violently around.

One of the experts indicated that tests done on Love’s brain showed she survived 2 to 6 hours after sustaining her injuries. Other testimony in the case seems to rule out anything but the very low end of that range.

The defense has so far called two medical witnesses: a toxicologist and a neuropathologist.

Love’s blood alcohol content at the time of her final fight with Huguely could well have been higher than the level found after her death, the toxicologist testified, estimating that it might have reached 0.17 or 0.18.

The neuropathologist said Love died when her brain stopped receiving blood and oxygen, probably as a result of asphyxiation. He attributed damage in Love’s brain to the effects of CPR.

During police interrogation immediately following his arrest, Huguely admitted to punching or kicking a hole in Love’s apartment door and shaking her, but denied doing anything that would have killed Love.

Chapman attacked the defense experts with vigor. He used a sharp tone of voice, asked aggressive and sometimes sarcastic questions and occasionally made comments about the testimony of the experts.

He told the neuropathologist his testimony was flawed because he was “imagining how it might have happened.”

At Thursday morning's expected 9:30 opening, defense attorney Francis McQ. Lawrence told the judge that his colleague, Quagliana, was sick. Court adjourned until 12:30 p.m., but Quagliana was still unable to attend.

Court is expected to reconvene Friday at 9 a.m.