Lacrosse player George Huguely guilty of murdering ex-girlfriend Yeardley Love

University of Virginia lacrosse player George Huguely was found guilty on Wednesday of the second-degree murder of ex-girlfriend Yeardley Love. Huguely was convicted by a jury in the May 2010 beating death of Love and could face up to 60 years in prison.

Jurors found University of Virginia lacrosse player George Huguely guilty in the brutal beating death of his former girlfriend, but rejected a verdict of first-degree murder. Huguely allegedly murdered Yeardley Love in a jealous rage over her new relationship with another lacrosse player.

After deliberating for nine hours, the jury in the two-week George Huguely trial handed down the second-degree murder verdict with an additional conviction for grand larceny. Jurors apparently believed that Huguely did not intend to kill Yeardley Love, but lost control when he beat her and left her to die. As a result of the two charges, Huguely could possibly serve up to 60 years in prison.

Huguely had argued that although he did have a “physical” fight with Love, he did not kill her or cause her more severe injuries. His defense team argued that she banged her own head against a wall and suggested that drinking and prescription drugs contributed to her death.

The Virginia’s medical examiner’s office ruled Love died from blunt force trauma to the head. Huguely’s defense team, however, presented an expert who argued that Love probably smothered to death because she was face down in a pillow wet with her own blood.

In a threatening e-mail sent to Yeardley Love a week before her death after he found out about her new relationship, Huguely told his ex-girlfriend: “I should have killed you.”