Mother and sister of slain UVA lacrosse player Yeardley Love give emotional testimony in civil trial: "I'll never see her again?"
The mother of a former women's lacrosse player at the University of Virginia broke into tears during her testimony Thursday as she described the moment when she learned her daughter was dead.
Sharon Love said she thought at first that her daughter had been in a traffic accident, adding that she never thought Yeardley Love would be murdered, WVIR reported.
Sharon Love, the administrator of her daughter's estate, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against George Huguely, who was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2010 killing of Yeardley Love, his on-again, off-again girlfriend. Huguely, who also played lacrosse at UVA, took the stand Wednesday in his only day inside the Charlottesville courtroom.
The lawsuit seeks $29.5 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages.
Yeardley's sister and brother-in-law also testified Thursday. Lexie Love Hodges said that when she got the call of her sister's death she thought, "That's it? I'll never see her again?" and said when she first met Huguely she thought "he was sloppy."
Lexie's husband, Jamison Hodges, said it was "nonstop bawling" in the days after Yeardley's death.
Members of the jury also became emotional as they listened to the testimony.
Closing arguments in the trial, which began Monday, are expected next week.
Love's family spoke to CBS Baltimore in 2013 about their loss.
"You keep thinking and believing that this isn't real. Just a little feeling in the back of your mind that she's going to walk through the door," her sister Lexie said.
"How is she dead?"
Jurors in Huguely's 2012 first-degree murder trial viewed a police interrogation video that was recorded hours after Love's body was found in her apartment.
"I have to tell you something," Det. Lisa Reeves told Huguely after he had answered questions about the night's events. "She's dead. You killed her."
"She's dead? How is she dead?" Huguely asked repeatedly. "Please, please tell me she is not dead."
"George, I wish I could, but I can't do that. She's 22-years-old and the life's gone out of her," Reeves said.
Before finding out Love was dead, Huguely told police in his video-taped statement that when he went to see his former girlfriend the night of her death he told her to "chill out" and "shook her a little."
"We were just going to talk," Huguely told the officer in the video.
