Court papers offer new details in Yeardley Love killing

Pages of newly unsealed search warrant records are providing insights into what happened in 22-year-old Yeardley Love’s bedroom before and after she was killed in early May.

George Huguely, a 22-year-old University of Virginia fourth-year and lacrosse player, told authorities in May that he got into a physical altercation with Love, a search warrant affidavit filed in Charlottesville Circuit Court said. Huguely told police that he saw blood coming out of his ex-girlfriend’s nose at one point during the incident and pushed her onto her bed before leaving.

In a previously released search warrant affidavit, Huguely told police that he had kicked through Love’s bedroom door and shook her, her head hitting the wall repeatedly.

According to search warrant records, a roommate found Love’s body in the early hours of May 3. She was face down on her pil-low in a pool of blood with a large bruise on the right side of her face, along with bruises and scrapes on her chin. The documents said her right eye was swollen shut.

Police took Love’s bedroom door during a May 3 search of her apartment at 222 14th St N.W., according to a search warrant affidavit, noting a fist-sized hole in the door that had visible hairs on it.

Authorities collected hairs and/or fibers, swabs of red stains and bedding and towels with red stains from Love’s bedroom.

A fingerprint was lifted from the room using specialized casting putty, according to search warrant documents. Police left Love’s room with two cell phones, two purses, a golf tee, a Natural Light beer can, a note found in a desk drawer, a digital cam-era and other small items.

Authorities returned to Love’s home on May 7 to look for a black T-shirt. Huguely told police during a May 3 interview that Love was wearing a T-shirt and panties during the altercation, but according to an unsealed affidavit, witnesses said Love wasn’t wearing the T-shirt when her body was discovered.

“This information was not known to the forensic detectives conducting the search of [Yeardley] Love’s residence at the time; therefore the T-shirt that George Huguely described was not collected,” the affidavit said.

In pictures of Love’s room, authorities noted a black T-shirt about 2 feet from where her body was discovered. City police De-tective Lisa Reeves said in the affidavit that the T-shirt appeared to have been dropped on the floor.

City police Lt. Gary Pleasants said if an item isn’t on a search warrant return, police didn’t seize it. No items were noted as seized on search warrant documents during a May 7 search of Love’s apartment.

Earlier in the investigation, Huguely led police to the location of Love’s computer, which he said he took from her home, ac-cording to search warrant records.
Searching Huguely

While Huguely was at the Charlottesville Police Department, police executed a search warrant on his person, a May 3 search warrant showed. Police collected swabs from inside his mouth, scrapings from under his fingernails and hair samples from his head and legs. The search warrant records also show police took a black T-shirt with a police logo, a pair of shorts, a pair of brown flip-flops, a set of keys and $3.

Huguely lived down the street from Love in an apartment at 230 14th St N.W. Investigators swabbed the bathtub, kitchen, kitchen trash and entryway door, the search warrant said, and took the bathroom and entryway rugs, the shower curtain, two Apple laptops, a notebook and a letter addressed to Love.

Police also took a white UVa lacrosse shirt with a red stain, two blue polo shirts and a pair of shorts that Huguely said he wore during the altercation. Huguely’s passport and keys to a black 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe were in the shorts pocket, according to a search warrant affidavit.

Authorities searched the Tahoe on May 6 at the Charlottesville Wrecker Service’s East High Street location. A search warrant said police took handwritten notes, a digital camera and a phone.

Pleasants did not release the contents of the notes or letter. The lieutenant said the Tahoe was released soon after the search to Huguely’s father.
In court

A handful of search warrant records were released Thursday morning at the Charlottesville Circuit Court after having been sealed for two months. Circuit Judge John McGrath ruled last week in Albemarle County Circuit Court that the temporary seal-ing order of some of the sealed records should be released by the close of business Thursday.

A group of media outlets — The Daily Progress, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Washington Post and the Associated Press — filed a challenge May 7 to unseal the sealing orders connected to search warrant records in Huguely’s case. Lawrence L. McConnell, publisher of The Daily Progress, has said the paper was seeking the legal justification for sealing documents that are typically available to the public.

Albemarle County Circuit Judge Cheryl Higgins ordered last month that the sealing orders themselves be unsealed with cer-tain redactions. After reading the orders, the media outlets sought the unsealing of the search warrant records. While most of the search warrant records in this case now have been released with some redactions, McGrath ordered that any search warrant records regarding cell phones and Internet services would remain sealed. According to the order, a May 6 sealing order will remain in effect.

Pleasants said he is unaware of any other sealed search warrants in connection with this case.

Witnesses have remained talkative and cooperative throughout the investigation in Love’s death, which is ongoing, Pleasants said.

“An investigation like this will not end,” Pleasants said. “Small things will be done until court.”

The office of the state medical examiner announced Wednesday that Love’s cause of death was blunt force injury to the head and that the case officially is a homicide. Huguely’s lawyer, Francis McQ. Lawrence, made a statement after a May court ap-pearance that Love’s death was “an accident with a tragic outcome.”

Huguely is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing Oct. 7 in Charlottesville General District Court.