Jury: 26 years total for former U.Va. athlete

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A jury convicted a former University of Virginia lacrosse player Wednesday of second-degree murder of his ex-girlfriend in a drunken, jealous rage, rejecting a first-degree murder verdict and a possible life sentence.

Instead, jurors recommended a 25-year prison term for George Huguely V in the May 2010 slaying of Yeardley Love. They added one more year for a grand larceny conviction.

Huguely was found not guilty of four other charges, including breaking and entering and burglary. Jurors also could have returned lesser verdicts of involuntary or voluntary manslaughter.

Huguely, 24, of Chevy Chase, Md., bowed his head during sentencing. Circuit Judge Edward Hogshire set an April court date on sentencing matters before a formal sentencing is expected to be held in summer. He is not bound by the jury's recommendations, but Virginia judges typically heed jurors' wishes.

Jurors deliberated for about nine hours before returning their verdict to a somber courtroom. Huguely stood erect, flanked by his attorneys, and appeared stoic as the verdict was read. Some sobs could be heard in the court.

Prosecutors said Huguely killed the U.Va. women's lacrosse player after a day of golf and binge drinking, incensed that she had had a relationship with a North Carolina lacrosse player. Love's right eye was bashed in and she was hit with such power that her brain was bruised. She also had wrenching head injury that caused bleeding at the base of her brain stem.

A coroner concluded she died of blunt force trauma. Defense and prosecution experts offered different medical opinions on the lethal consequences of her injuries.

Prosecutor Dave Chapman, who described the night Love was killed as a scene from a horror show, said Huguely kicked a hole in Love's door to get in her bedroom and left his on-again, off-again girlfriend to die.

Huguely's attorneys said he only went to Love's apartment to talk before the encounter quickly turned physical. He said she banged her head against the wall of her bedroom, and she only had a bloody nose when he left.

A prosecution witness testified Love, a 22-year-old from suburban Baltimore, smothered in her own blood-dampened pillow.

Love's mother, Sharon, tearfully testified during the sentencing phase as Huguely cast his gaze down at the defense table. She described the death of her daughter as "unbearable."

"Every year that goes by I'd like to know what she'd be doing now," Sharon Love said.