News

Actions

Huguely Trial Day 6: Jury reads Love’s letter, email

Posted at 6:24 AM, Feb 13, 2012
and last updated 2012-02-28 19:01:40-05

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WTVR) – The Huguely murder trial resumed Monday with an unusual start.

Jurors in the case were given a stack of correspondences between Yeardley Love and George Huguely.

Huguely, 24, faces six charges, including first-degree murder, in connection with the death of Love, his ex-girlfriend. Both Huguely and Love played lacrosse at the University of Virginia. Huguely has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The prosecution provided the copies and explained them as one handwritten note from Huguely to Love found in Love’s desk drawer and a lengthy email thread between the two.

The contents of the note and the email were not revealed to the court and after about fifteen minutes jurors passed their copies back and witness testimony began.

Monday’s first witness was Det. Sgt. Steven Dillon.

Dillon, of the forensics unit, testified that he was responsible for the collection of evidence at three different residences in the case.

He claimed he collected evidence from Love’s apartment, Huguely’s apartment and from Huguely’s friend Mike Thompson‘s residence which was located directly across the hallway from Huguely’s.

Dillon described collected sheets, comforters and a pillow case stained with blood from Love’s apartment.

He testified that police found no “points of impact” but did find a small smudge on the wall above the bed and swabbed it for evidence.

He also again made mention of a potential blood stain on the carpet and a spatter of blood on the apron of Love’s bed skirt.

Dillion testified to also searching Huguely’s apartment and removing his shower curtain for evidence after using a blue light to see a few small traces of blood. Then Dillon introduced a new angle of the search, not yet heard in court. Dillon said that on May 5th, two days after Love’s death, detectives had received information that led them to search the bathroom of Huguely’s friend Mike Thompson.

In previous testimony it had been stated that the two lived directly across the hall from one another and were often back and forth.

Dillon said detectives swabbed the shower drain and the sink, removed the elbow joint of the sink, and removed a tissue from the trash can with a diluted brown liquid on it.

It perhaps indicates that police had information that Huguely might have showered there the morning of Love’s death. Huguely in his taped police interview said he went straight home, never showered and went directly to bed.

Officer Jeremy Carper was the second prosecution witness to take the stand Monday.

Carper claimed he was responsible for taking photographs of Huguely once he was detained by police. Carper observed that at the time Huguely was more than six feet tall and weighed over 200 pounds. He said he noticed redness on both of Huguely’s hands and palms, a small skin abrasion on his right wrist and bruising on the outer portion of his forearm.

He said Huguely also had a slight abrasion below his left knee.

You can follow the trial on Twitter [Click here].