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University of Virginia Homicide Case Back in the News

Preliminary hearing took place Monday for George Huguely in Charlottesville.

Update, 5:55p.m.: About 125 packed a Charlottesville, Va. courthouse Monday during a preliminary hearing for George Huguely, a Chevy Chase native and Landon graduate accused of killing UVA lacrosse player Yeardley Love, according to news reports.

During the hearing, Huguely’s defense attorney said Huguely and Love had been in a relationship at the time of Love’s death, not recently broken up, according to a report by NBC29.  The attorney, Francis Lawrence, said there had been no evidence of beating in the room where Love’s body was found.

Prosecutors brought Caity Whiteley, Love’s roommate, to the stand to testify. Whiteley described finding Love’s body to the court and reported finding a hole in the door to Love’s room, as though it had been punched or kicked, according to the report.

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Huguely waived his right to appear before the judge. Full coverage of the hearing is available on NBC29.

Update, 12:00p.m.: George Huguely, the 23-year-old former Chevy Chase resident charged in the murder of Yeardley Love, is not expected to attend today's preliminary hearing in Charlottesville, according to a report on the website of The Daily Progess this morning.
 
Huguely signed a waiver on his right to appear last week "either in person or by video camera," according to that report.  

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Original post: The University of Virginia murder case that shocked the Chevy Chase and Landon School communities last spring will be back in the news again this week.

A preliminary hearing for George Huguely V, of Chevy Chase, is set for 1 p.m. Monday in the Charlottesville General District Court. Huguely is the 23-year-old lacrosse star who is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Yeardley Love, of Cockeysville, Md., whose body was found in her apartment on May 3 of last year.

The preliminary hearing is expected to attract media attention, but it likely won’t turn into the full-scale media circus that captured the nation’s attention last spring, according to a report published over the weekend by The Daily Progress, Charlottesville’s daily newspaper.

Because of the number of media members expected, the hearing will be held at the
Charlottesville Court House, rather than at the smaller District Court building. Technically, though, it will be a General District Court hearing.

Huguely was born in Washington, D.C., but lived in Chevy Chase, Md., for many years. He went to the Landon School, a private school in Bethesda, where he won All-America honors in lacrosse and also quarterbacked for the football team in his senior year.

Love is from Cockeysville and attended the Notre Dame Preparatory Academy in Towson, where she played both lacrosse and field hockey, winning All-County honors in lacrosse in 2006.

Huguely and Love had dated, but their relationship had ended before the murder took place, reports say. Search warrants on-file in the office of the Charlottesville city clerk reportedly reference a fight the two had had shortly before Love’s death. Both were fourth-year students at the University at the time.

Press reports are circulating that some type of plea deal may be in the works for Huguely. But, that’s highly speculative and there’s certainly been no confirmation from either side. According to a “legal analysis” that appeared in The Cavalier Daily last week, one proposal suggested that Huguely would plead guilty to a lesser charge than first-degree murder in exchange for fewer years in prison.

Defense lawyers for Huguely and the Commonwealth of Virginia reportedly have subpoened 25 people for Monday’s preliminary hearing. These include police officers, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Love, two of Huguely’s lacrosse teammates, a woman who lived next door to Love and employees of two nearby establishments thought to be hangouts for the lacrosse team.

Huguely has been held at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail since his arrest last May.

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