Yeardley Love's Murder Trial To Begin Monday With Jury Selection
TOWSON, Md. (WJZ)-- Nearly two years after Cockeysville native Yeardley Love was found dead near the University of Virginia, her former boyfriend is scheduled to stand trial in her murder.
Derek Valcourt has more on what's ahead for George Huguely.
Monday, attorneys from both sides will begin the painstaking process of selecting a jury. That is expected to take two days. The jury will ultimately be asked to decide whether-- as the prosecution contends-- this was pre-meditated murder.
Love grew up in Cockeysville and attended Notre Dame Prep. She was just 22 years old when she died. Police say she was killed at the hands of her college boyfriend, 24-year-old George Huguely of Chevy Chase.
A wave of media is now descending on the college town where his murder trial is about to get underway.
"It's attention to a trial by the national media that we haven't seen here before," Rick Barrick, a University of Virginia-- Charlottesville spokesperson, said.
The University of Virginia lacrosse players were having problems with their relationship just before Love's death. Questioned by police, Huguely admitted he kicked down the door of her off-campus apartment and shook her as her head repeatedly hit the wall. But his defense team says, Huguely didn't intend to kill her.
"George Huguely only learned that Yeardley Love had died when he was told that by a detective," said Rhonda Quagliana, Huguely's defense attorney.
The jury will hear that defense, along with his lacrosse teammates describing him as very drunk the night Love died.
"The prosecution's case looks very solid," legal expert Byron Warnken said.
Warnken warned the defense expects to counter the medical examiner's findings that Love died from head trauma by suggesting she could have fallen or that the prescription drug Adderall found in her system actually killed her.
"They're going to probably show that she was drinking too much that night or drinks too much generally," Warnken said. "They're going to probably put her a little bit on trial by showing that her condition that she caused led to this much more than whatever he did."
Huguely has been locked up ever since the crime. He faces the possibility of a life sentence if he is convicted of first-degree murder.
