Affidavit: U.Va. lacrosse player admits shaking victim

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- George Huguely, the U.Va. player charged with killing female player Yeardley Love, told police that he argued with the victim and "shook Love and her head repeatedly hit the wall," according to an affidavit requesting a search warrant.

Affidavits described witnesses finding Love face down on her pillow in her bedroom. Her right eye was swollen shut, there was a pool of blood on the pillow, and her face was bruised, according to the affidavits.

The door to the room had been forced open and had a hole in it, according to the documents.

Huguely later admitted to police that he kicked his right foot through the door, according to an affidavit.

Earlier this morning in Charlottesville General District Court, Huguely’s lawyers described the death as accidental

Defense lawyer Francis Lawrence says he is confident that Yeardley's death was not intended.

“ … We are confident that Ms. Love’s death was not intended, but an accident with a tragic outcome,” Lawrence said.

Love, 22, was found dead in her apartment yesterday morning. Hours later, 22-year-old George Huguely was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

Police say the two had been in a relationship but investigators plan to interview fellow players and friends about the nature of the relationship.

Huguely appeared in court today via video from the jail. Lawrence didn’t ask for bond. Huguely will return to court June 10 to have a preliminary hearing date set.

Friends and teammates described Love, a fourth-year government major and Spanish minor from Cockeysville, Md., as an "angel," U.Va. officials said yesterday. Love was a midfielder for U.Va.'s varsity lacrosse team and a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.

"The reaction [is that] of losing a loved one -- mourning, grieving, a feeling of disbelief," U.Va. Athletics Director Craig Littlepage said. "How could this happen to such a wonderful person? A person who was described as an angel by her teammates and friends?"

Huguely, a fourth-year anthropology major from Chevy Chase, Md., was being held at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.

Huguely and Love had a relationship in the past, police said, but it was not clear yesterday whether they were romantically involved at the time of her death.

Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy Longo said this morning that authorities have more people to interview in the investigation.

Charlottesville police officers and rescue personnel were sent to Love's apartment in the 200 block of 14th Street Northwest after one of her two roommates called the city's emergency dispatcher yesterday at 2:15 a.m. to report that Love was suffering from a possible alcohol overdose.

"It was quickly apparent to them that this young lady was the victim of something far worse," Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy J. Longo said.

The first responders found Love unresponsive in her bedroom and noticed obvious signs of physical trauma. They sought to revive her but were unsuccessful. She was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

A cause of death will not be known until an autopsy is performed, police said.

Longo declined to provide additional details about Love's injuries. "To my knowledge, there is no weapon involved," he said.

More than a dozen U.Va. students who live near Love's apartment said they did not see or hear anything out of the ordinary late Sunday or early yesterday.

Throughout the night and morning, detectives and forensic investigators searched Love's apartment for evidence and conducted interviews with her friends, neighbors, teammates and acquaintances.

"Fairly quickly," Longo said, "George Huguely . . . became the focus of our investigation."

Investigators found Huguely at his apartment, near Love's apartment on 14th Street. He voluntarily met with the investigators at the police department.

"At some point thereafter probable cause developed, which resulted in the issuance of an arrest warrant" charging him with first-degree murder, Longo wrote in an e-mail.

Police declined to say exactly what led them to Huguely. Longo said he does not believe additional people will be charged.

Leonard W. Sandridge, U.Va.'s executive vice president and chief operating officer, said the university community was "shocked and saddened at the news of Miss Love's death at the hands of a murderer."

U.Va.'s community is particularly troubled, he said, because "one of our own" has been charged in the homicide.

"This is something that will take our community a long time to deal with," he said.

U.Va. President John T. Casteen III said in a statement that he hopes Love is remembered for her talents and her potential and not for the way she died.

"However little we may not know now about Yeardley Love's death, we do know that she did not have or deserve to die -- that she deserved the bright future she earned growing up, studying here and developing her talents as a lacrosse player," Casteen said.

"She deserves to be remembered for her human goodness, her capacity for future greatness, and not for the terrible way in which her young life has ended."

Casteen said he knows of no explanation for what happened to Love.

"This death moves us to deep anguish for the loss of a student of uncommon talent and promise, and we express the university's and our own sympathy for Yeardley's family, teammates and friends," he said.

"That she appears now to have been murdered . . . compounds this sense of loss by suggesting that Yeardley died without comfort or consolation from those closest to her. We mourn her death and feel anger on reading that the investigators believe that another student caused it."

Love is the seventh U.Va. student who has died during this academic year. A typical year, U.Va. officials said, might see the death of three or four students.

Love's death is the only homicide of the seven U.Va. student deaths.

Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, however, was killed after attending a Metallica concert at U.Va.'s John Paul Jones Arena in October.

Love's death is not the first loss of a U.Va. lacrosse player in recent years. Former men's team captain Will Barrow died in 2008 in an apparent suicide at his apartment in Charlottesville.

Brian McNeil and Ted Strong are reporters for The Daily Progress in Charlottesville.