UVA Lacrosse tragedy

[JohnJacquesLayup]

voices.washingtonpost.com/local-breaking-news/maryland/uva-lacrosse-player-charged-wi.html

www2.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/local/crime/article/police_investigating_uva_student_death_as_a_possible_homicide/55709/

[kchoya]

Not to make light of the situation, but I'm glad the Post clarified this:

"Huguely played on the mens team; Love played on the women's team."

[CAHoya07]

Thoughts and prayers out to everyone involved, in what is clearly a very gut-wrenching and tragic situation. I'm sure this will blow up into a national story.

Very sad. Apparently they were in a relationship too. Some of the comments in The Daily Progress talk about the safety of students in college and universities' inaction towards preventing sexual abuse, and while I agree with that, I don't think that's the case here. While we don't know all the details, it seems like it was a case of domestic violence that incidentally happened in the context of college lacrosse. Of course, I could be proven horribly wrong as more details emerge, but that seems to be the case at this time.

I wonder what will eventually happen to the rest of the teams' seasons, and how they will handle it, but that is clearly secondary at the moment.

(EDIT: Story linked on the front page of ESPN.com now: sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5158985. Says that initially police were called to the apartment at 2:15am about a possible alcohol overdose, which doesn't seem consistent with the murder charge, strange.)

[SirSaxa]

Very sad. I wonder what really happened. Too soon to speculate.

[hoyaalf]

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

[hoyaalf]

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

[SSHoya]

Three GU Lax players went to high school with the victim:

www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/sports/04lacrosse.html?hp

[jerseyhoya34]

Thoughts and prayers for the victim and her family. Has anyone seen the police report?

[WilsonBlvdHoya]

May 3, 2010 17:58:59 GMT -5 SSHoya said:

Three GU Lax players went to high school with the victim:

www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/sports/04lacrosse.html?hp

Just a terrible tragedy....For some background, NDP is the sister school of Loyola-Blakefield (Baltimore's Jesuit HS) and also produced the Stanwick sisters at GU (Sheehan, Wick and Coco) among other outstanding women lacrosse players.

Prayers go out to the families involved.....

[HometownHoya]

Interested to hear all the details. They initially responded on the pretense that alcohol was the issue then saw "obvious physical trauma". Not sure what it entails but hopefully they investigate fully and do indeed keep George innocent until proven guilty.

[SSHoya]

Defense lawyer says an "accident." Innocent until proven guilty. Too much unknown about the "facts" of this case.

www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/sports/05lacrosse.html?hp

[theexorcist]

I find it kind of surprising that virginiasports.com or virginia.edu still hasn't been updated to include any information on the death.

[SirSaxa]

ESPN's take:

sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5161385

[98hoya]

May 3, 2010 15:30:22 GMT -5 hoyaalf said:

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

That is quite an understatement. I'd replace it with "murder, murder, murder."

The defense lawyer calls this an "accident with a tragic outcome." I'm not sure what he means by that. According to ESPN, Hugely admitted to police that he smashed through this poor girl's closed bedroom door (the police say there was a fist-hole in it), then smashed her head into a wall several times and then left her, face down on her own floor, to bleed and die. He stole her computer too. The police also have a warrant to search Hugely's place for an object that was used to smash in the victim's face (links to the affidavits are within this article: www2.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/local/crime/article/yeardley_love_received_death_threats_computer_taken_in_search/55743/).

Now, maybe he was drunk, maybe he had anger or mental health issues, or maybe he is just an evil person...but by any definition, this is a bit more than "stupid" or an "accident" no?

[CAHoya07]

Pretty good article about it in the Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/04/AR2010050402215.html?nav=hcmodule

Not that it's at all relevant to the case, but apparently two years ago the guy had an alcohol-fueled run-in with a female police officer in which he threatened to kill her.

Based on the details released so far in this case, he may not have intended to kill her, but ended up beating her really bad which resulted in her death. That would be assault and manslaughter, right? However, apparently he also stole her computer (so you could add on a theft charge), which police recovered and are looking through e-mails to see if there was any premeditation for murder (friends had reported death threats).

If all this is true, this guy is in big trouble, and I don't think he will ever live as a free man ever again. Maybe the death was an "accident," or maybe it wasn't, but the physical harm seems to have definitely been intended. Yes, it's more than just being "stupid."

Finally, after this terrible tragedy, apparently both men's and women's lacrosse teams will soldier on and participate in the postseason.

[98hoya]

CAHoya:

Depending on how the facts break, it could end up being homicide or manslaughter. I don't know VA law, but in most jurisdictions, even if the death was unintended (e.g. if someone intended to hurt but not kill), there are still situations where that unintended death could result in a conviction for murder.

Either way, assuming the charges are proven he'll go away for a very long time and he may never come out again.

[theexorcist]

By speaking to the cops, he destroyed any semblance of success of the lawyer's claim that it was an accident resulting in death.

His lawyer has an uphill battle proving a case where her head was repeatedly hit against a wall as not intent to kill.

[AustinHoya03]

May 5, 2010 12:38:33 GMT -5 @98hoya said:

Either way, assuming the charges are proven he'll go away for a very long time and he may never come out again.

I probably shouldn't speculate just yet, but here it goes:

IF a manslaughter/murder conviction occurs, I think he would go away for some time, but I don't know if it would be very long, and I think the possibility he'd receive life is slim. It seems likely based on the details released so far that there will be at least some mitigating evidence (I'm thinking of e-mails particularly) due to "romantic troubles." And quite frankly, he's a young, good-looking college kid without a terrible criminal history.

We also know that he has injuries. While these are described as being caused by his fight with the victim's door, it seems likely there will be some evidence of a struggle which might be portrayed by defense counsel as evidence that the defendant was acting in self-defense or engaging in mutual combat. Hence, the accident comment.

It sounds as if the ME's report will be crucial to how the case proceeds. Here's hoping we get some details.

[98hoya]

Austin,

There's no viable "accident" claim here.

The evidence from the affidavits is that Hugely smashed the victim's head several times into the wall. He did that after he punched through her door and before he stole her computer and left her to die. There's additional info that he caved in the right side of her face with something in addition to slamming her head against the wall.

With that run-up, I would agree that there's potentially an argument - not an easy one - that the causing of death was accidental, but don't confuse that with any claim that there was no intent to cause this girl harm (which is what the term "accident" connotes).

This isn't an accident in the sense of missing a stop sign and hitting another car and causing a death. Instead, it's only potentially an accident in the sens that it's like intentionally trying to run over someone's legs to hurt them, but "accidentally" running over their vital organs and killing them.

IMO, this lawyer should be playing for murder 2, not manslaughter. If he tries to claim this was an "accident," he's going to irritate the jury and get his client sent to death row. Of course, his client might prefer death row than spending the next 60 years in a Virginia prison.

[AustinHoya03]

May 5, 2010 12:56:37 GMT -5 @98hoya said:

Austin,

There's no viable "accident" claim here. The evidence is that he smashed her head several times into the wall according to the affidavit. There's potentially an argument that the causing of death was accidental, but that shouldn't be confused with any claim that there was an intent to cause this girl harm.

Put differently, it wasn't an accident when he punched through the door, slammed her head, and left her to die. What may have been unintended was for it to actually result in death.

Was the victim unconscious when this happened? We don't know what happened between the defendant busting through the door and the victim's head hitting the wall.

Did she get up? Did she say anything? Did she try to hit the defendant? Did she pick up a sharp object?

I'll agree that based on the current press accounts it doesn't look good for the defendant, but I don't think we know the entire story yet, and defense counsel's claim of "accident" suggests additional details exist.

ON EDIT: I'm not saying that a "good" or "viable" defense exists, just that it's too early to rule one out based on media reports based on information from law enforcement.