CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- George Huguely V wrote an e-mail to Yeardley Love days before her death that said in part, "I should have killed you," according to the prosecution's opening statement Wednesday.
The defense countered by suggesting the phrase was not meant as a threat but was simply an innocent idiom and that in the full quote Huguely also wrote, "You should have killed me."
On one point both sides agreed: Huguely and Love, who played on lacrosse teams at the University of Virginia, had a tempestuous, on-again, off-again relationship that became more turbulent in the months before her death in May, 2010.
Wednesday's opening statements by Commonwealth attorney Warner D. Chapman and defense attorney Francis McQ. Lawrence in Charlottesville Circuit Court provide a roadmap for the first-degree murder trial in which the prosecution will argue Huguely meant to kill Love and the defense will argue she died by tragic accident.
Chapman suggested Huguley was angry because Love had slept with another man and had told Huguely the other man was better in bed. Lawrence said both were unfaithful and that a culture of "hooking up" had created drama in their relationship.
"George never, never, never had any intent to kill her," Lawrence said. He told the jury they should seriously consider involuntary manslaughter. Huguely faces first-degree murder and five other charges to which he pleaded not guilty.
Chapman described a violent scene in which Huguely entered Love's apartment, kicked in her bedroom door and shook her before throwing her on the bed where, Chapman said, medical evidence suggests she lay for two hours, unable to move to summon help, dying alone. Chapman said Love suffered injuries that included multiple cuts, bruises and damage to her brain.
Lawrence said Huguely went to the apartment to rekindle their relationship and that they were on the bed together and fell to the floor. He said Huguely never knocked her head against the wall and that when he left her apartment he thought that she had no more than a bloody nose, though Chapman said pointedly in his statement that for all of Love's injuries, her nose was unharmed.
Lawrence promised the case will hinge on medical testimony. The medical examiner ruled that she died of blunt force trauma. Lawrence said the defense will produce an expert to dispute that, suggesting her death was related to an irregular heartbeat.
Lawrence said proof that Huguely did not intend to kill Love was his reaction of surprise when police officers told him during interrogation that she was dead: "George did not and could not believe any such thing happened."
Both sides agreed Huguely took Love's computer on his way out of her apartment and that he threw it in a dumpster. Chapman suggested he did this in an attempt to hide evidence of his threatening emails. Lawrence said it was merely a way of trying to get Love "to reach out to him" in the morning.
Huguely and Love were UVA seniors, weeks from graduation, at the time of her death.
USA Today