CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Jury selection is in its second day in the trial of George Huguely V, a University of Virginia lacrosse player accused of killing his former girlfriend.
Judge Edward Hogshire and the attorneys in the case had selected 22 potential jurors as of mid-day Tuesday. The parties plan to find 27 jurors qualified to sit for the trial, then narrow that panel down to the 12 jurors and three alternates who will decide Huguely’s face.
Prosecutors allege that Huguely, 24, brutally beat 22-year-old Yeardley Love — also a U-Va. student and lacrosse player — to death in May 2010.
Jury selection has been slow-moving in the high-profile case; 160 potential jurors were called for questioning.
In the group of 15 jurors being questioned before the court broke for a lunch break, all said they had heard of the case.
Defense attorney Rhonda Quagliana asked jurors whether they thought eliciting testimony that portrayed Love in a negative light would be blaming the victim. Six of the jurors said yes.
Friends have said that Huguely, of Chevy Chase, and Love were partying in similar company the night before she died. The defense has challenged a medical examiner’s finding that Love died from blunt force trauma to the head and has called her death an accident.
Huguely faces charges of first-degree murder, felony murder and other offenses. He could face up to life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder.
