Yeardley Love Murder At UVA: George Huguely Guilty of 2nd Degree Murder
After 9 hours of deliberations, a jury hearing the case of the murder of Lacrosse phenom Yeardley Love, her former boyfriend and fellow UVA student George Huguely has been convicted of her murder in the second degree.
Check back to www.blinkoncrime.com for updates to this developing story
Contributing Editor Jacqueline Beaufort
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The first sign of an abusive bf is the jealousy. It is flattering at first–to be claimed, to be wanted so much. Next, the controlling behavior, telling you what to wear, who to spend time with, how to behave. It is presented as “if you love me you won’t mind making these small sacrifices to show me”. The silent treatment is another favorite of the controlling bf. And eventually the emotional violence turns to physical violence.
Bless this poor girl and may she rest in peace. Educate your daughters. Violence starts in the mind.
Amen.
I would only add if it does escalate to violence, women need to know that it will never improve.
B
Thanks Connie.
I worked on my first construction job, a house, in 1946. In those days most of the material used for construction today would have been used to fire the steam boiler at the sawmill. Everything has been downgraded in quality. I looked at the photos of the building where Yeardley lived and thought they had better not have a torando or a storm with straight line winds over 80 miles per hour. If they did those building would be a pile of rubble.
Two years ago my oldest and I built a new garage and storage room. Fortunately the people at the local lumber yards knew that I would not accept substandard materials and they let us pick our purchases. I once had to go through a bundle of 2,000 two by fours to get 49 suitable for use. That is not something that a contractor could do. Too much labor time, so they build with substandard material.
Twinkletoes
You stated the problem that all young women face. I have two girls both in their fifties. Our oldest was miss tollerant in her teenage years and early twenties. She could not believe that men could be that way. Her mother and I tried to explain just what you stated without success. It took her seeing one of her girfriends getting a beating by her husband to make her realize we had been telling her the truth. Some men, young and old, believe that women are their property and act accordingly.
Real love for another is not squeezing the life out of your partner, it is an open hand of support. If we could only make some people understand.
ATG-
I have been meaning to say this to you for a while- if you have not done so, you need to pen a memoir.
The kind of man you are and the contribution of your experiences of family, profession, and overall life would so benefit those that are not exposed to it in their youth. Even if you are only comfortable initially with sharing it with your family. Start with picking a few profound experiences and chronicle them. The rest will come. You are one of life’s heavy lifters sir.
B
I agree with Blink! So much wisdom,Texas Grandfather!
I was involve with a court case years ago. I had to meet with not just my attorneys but the other parties attorney. It was pre-arranged what could be stated and what could not. Ultimately, the guy was found not guilty. I watched as he played the great father he talked about his love for his baby girl. I sat there discussed knowing that he was not allow to see his precious baby girl without supervision because he had held a gun to the mothers head while she was holding the child. Since that experience I have always felt the our court system has a major flaw. It should state “You swear to tell the partial truth and only the partial truth”.
Blink,
Amen to your comment about ATG! He is a treasure and I for one am grateful he found his way to BOC. I especially needed to know there are people just like GRANDFATHER in this broken world. It encourages me to reach the bar he’s set for anyone wanting to be better and better.
Big bear hugs ATG. <3
Blink sez: ATG-
I have been meaning to say this to you for a while- if you have not done so, you need to pen a memoir.
~~~~~~~
Oh yes, I agree! You so remind me of my Grandpa Mutt! He had the most wonderful way of telling stories, anecdotes from his life.
You have such a marvelous colorful way with words. You bring your tales to life!
Ragdoll, thank you for your words. You have enormous compassion combined with courage, a wonderful mixture! <3
Thank you Blink for your support and kind words. Mary too.
Life has been basically good for me. As a child, we lived hard because of the depression. However, I was blessed to have a loving family and good strong christian neighbors and teachers who cared about children.
Yes, Blink I probably should write something to help young people understand good and bad values. This site has been an inspiration to me in regards to expressing myself in an effort to help others. It takes every one of us to make a real difference in overcoming evil. We must bring every experience and skill that each of us posses towards that goal.
This memoir will be the second book inspired by Blink and those who post here. The first is putting together a manual to help parents keep their young people safe at college and other places while they learn the realities of living. I have a basic outline and have been gathering ideas and material for the project. I am no stranger to publication, having written articals in trade magazines in the oil and gas industry and computer field.
Big hugs to you all
A Big Hug and Yay!
B
ATG…I wish I had your book today. What a wonderful gift to pass on to Seniors graduating from High School. I am so glad that you stated it would be directed to young people because our boys need this wisdom as much as our girls.
ATG: You are the best! My late father had the same values as you-oh I miss him terribly but you are a gift from God! I am so happy to know you- I am smiling as I write this… I would love to give my two sons a book written by you and your infinite wisdom and compassion.
Hugs, hugs and more hugs
@A Texas Grandfather says:
February 25, 2012 at 6:19 pm
I 2nd everyone w/praise for your wisdom, insight & ability to relate w/your writing.
]
You Sir, are a treasure of a man & I too, wish your BOOKS were available NOW … [hint,hint
Thanks for all your post/s across BOC …
Ode and others
In thinking about the audience for the safety manual, it is my conclusion that mothers and fathers need to address this issue at least by the end of the junior year of high school. This will give the young person a period of time to read and internalize the material. It will also give them time to have discussions with parents and friends regarding the new ideas and skills.
Young people from single parent homes who have not had the experience of a mother or a father on a daily basis are the ones at great risk. This is may be the reason for the unvoiced, but hinted wording by Blink in the request for a memoir.
Thanks to all of you for putting up with my misspelled words and poor punctuation of late. I touch type and I have a new portable with a slightly different keyboard than my old one. This will take a while to get the feel of where the keys are located.
I learned to type on an old L.C. Smith manual before electric typewriters came into common usuage and when there were less than a half dozen computers in the world.
Oh, ATG, please do write the manual and memior. I would buy 3 of the each of them and give one to the local high school, one to pass around to our young that we mentor and one for me. Please don’t wait too long; I am 71 1/2.
Love to all here and God Bless,
IBE
IBE
I am so glad to learn that you and maybe others mentor young people in your community. This is what our young people so desperatly need today. Our social value systems have fallen so low. It is the grandparents and those that can be surrogate grandparents that count for so much in a young persons life.
Then, we have the dammaged families that are biological creators and do not have the parenting skills or the desire to be a parent.
sorry, it’s MONKEY MUSINGS / OPEN DISCUSSIONS not lounge. Fleeting Sr. Moment
Blink, you mentioned an update forthcoming a few weeks ago. Are you able to share info about which case it will involve?
I have updated quite a few, but I presume Kesse?
B
Twinkletoes – @2/24/2012 – 5:04p.m.
I couldn’t agree more! One very important thing that I learned first hand is that when ANYONE says to you “If you love me, you’ll do this, or won’t do that” – that this has NOTHING to do with love and everything to do with emotional blackmail. The first step on a very slippery slope.
You are absolutely right – domestic violence starts in the mind. ANd the person who is being abused ceases to be a person in the abuser’s eyes; the abused person is really only a possession, an “object”. And the thing is that, the more control is exercised and the more the object caves in, the more that the object’s self and self-worth are eroded.
To me, it seemed a though Yeardley was trying to break away from this obsessive wacko – and he would not tolerate this. That’s what makes this case even more tragic. She knew he was a loser.
What I still don’t understand are the women who put up with this type of behavior who have good, well-paying careers. Why would they put up with the abuse?? It was bad enough in cases where the spouse has no job and no means of support and are easily convinced that they can’t live without the abuser. But if you have a means to excape – get out!
And Val – you’re so right, things are NEVER going to improve.
The problem Yeardley had with George is that she had no support system to help her. These were all young people with little or no experience regarding the situation she was trying to deal with.
I find it very hard to believe that the coachs of the LaCross teams did not know what was going on. One of the prime jobs of a coach is
to know what is going on with your players.
I posted almost two years ago that Yeardley should have stayed at home when left school earlier. She did not have a father or grandfather to protect her. She had lost her father to cancer earlier in her life.
The University of Virginia should learn from this case by taking steps to provide counseling to young men and women who find themselves in such a situation. Yes, I know they were over twenty-one and were considered adults. However, IMO they did not have the experience to deal with the problem.
George is an alcoholic bully who was never made to behave. George’s family were his prime enablers in this type of behavior. He had problems as a juvinile that was not known until the trial.
He was arrested for public drunkeness in another community. He was so unrully that the officer, a woman, was forced to taze him. He should have been charged for assault on an officer and placed in jail for six months or a year. He escaped incarciration because he was an athlete at UVA and his family probably provided an attorney to plead down the charges. This guy needed some tough love from the family, but instead recieved the usual “he didn’t mean to do that” excuse.
Yep, ATG, and look where all that enabling got him. Not even a high priced lawyer could get him out of this one. Sometimes Daddy’s money only goes so far. It’s just too bad that lovely Yeardley had to pay with her life…. Just so sad.
Sending prayers for her mom and her sister, and all her relatives and friends.
I cannot imagine the pain and anguish this family is going through, but it would be my sincere hope that when they are able, they use Yeardley’s story as one to raise awareness about the very real potential for escalation of violence and the need for school and familial intervention.
Yeardley was an adult and I completely understand her not wanting to mar her final days at school and her collegiate athletic career with something she likely considered were “Huguely’s issues”.
That said, coaches were aware, teammates were aware, parents were aware, and Yeardley ends up murdered.
What should have been done differently in retrospect is the message for the next young woman in a similar situation- and it needs to be loud.
Again, so preventable.
B
@ A Texas Grandfather
A great article written by you.I truly believe and have experienced this age group and younger live by the seat of their pants.They go on living and think life will just keep moving on for them.They act before they think and have that energy of being young.It can work towards the good or bad.Danger is not around the corner in their minds,just good times and friends.I just recently read an article about four college students that were riding together in ND from MN.The roads were really bad with snow and ice.They slid across the road and got hit,all four died on impact.They had to keep going and how easy would it have been to stay in a hotel room overnight.They
were young and fearless.Being absent for class is better than losing your life in a car accident.We need to instill the gift of fear in our
children.
I need to proofread what I write Blink please delete above comment
On another note my kids hate for me to ride with them.They say I am the worst backseat driver ever.lol.That’s ok as long as my voice is still there when they are driving alone I can deal with that title.
o/topic sorry….but wanted to mention…here we go again with a school shooter…and there were red flags…social media comments…threats not taken seriously…changes in his behavior….recent violence in his home…but the ball was dropped again and so preventable….a hand held detector to sweep entrants would have been better than nothing imo. Yes the kid was bullied and that issue must continue to be addressed…sigh…we must look for every new solution possible and enablers need to wake up…sorry I have been so frustrated since powel killed his kids.. and then Steven being an ahole and won’t talk…dang…ok rant over time to pray
I wish BOC had a LIke button for just about every comment here …TGF, you so remind me of alot of my past generations in my family..when i hear your words it moves me to that direction…i migrate to their caring nurturing ways. i miss them so much. The ways of the world today are so easy to get wrapped up into and mimick…i am glad my feet are planted firmly in standards, ethics and a simplier way of life back then even if it is brought to just the light of these troubling time now….it makes the wolrd a little bereable to live in knowing we have someone looking out for our society and preaching the things that should matter to us all. Thank you so much for all of the encouragement and support…i am 43, lived a pretty sheltered life…its amazing how niave how these intellectual educated youngins can be…it is also amazing that the perpetrators and criminals, watch with trained keen senses can find the slightest of opportunity and latch on and bribe their way in….Wolves in sheeps clothing is what my grandmother use to tell us. saying all the right things, knowing what we want to hear…knowing our weeknesses and praying on our strengths. Prayers for this girl and her family. THanks to BOC for this website and her collective contributors. Thank you all.
gigi
Sorry to tell you, but it has now been determined that the shooter at the high school in Ohio was being schooled in a facility or acadmey for students who were unruly and could not be allowed to mix with normal students. The whole issue was the percieved lose of a girfriend to one of the boys sitting at the table.
Warped minds need to be identified as early as possible and those that posses them moved to a secure facility where they cannot harm themselves or others.
Daydreamer- I feel your pain- my youngest son has just received his Learner’s Permit and yesterday was the maiden voyage, so I sit in the passenger seat a little on edge, white-knuckled and constantly repeat myself….slowdown, both hands on the wheel, radio off, etc. but he is doing pretty good. However, I have viewed many mailboxes up close and personal, and our elderly neighbor and his dog are still intact. Parking in between the lines is definitely a goal for the future. Sorry to get off topic for the rest of you blinksters!
The message to UVA and to other schools with large populations should be:
1. You are parents to all your students who attend, whether you like it or not. You chose to be an administrator, coach, or other teacher and you must come to realize that parenting and advising is part of your job.
2. The foolish idea of hiding problems in order to protect a reputation is what caused this tradgey and others. All school personnel should be made responsible for observing and reporting to an designated administrator any behavior that is suspect or out of the normal.
If you or one of your collegues has a student that cannot behave themselves, the school should notify the parents and call them all in for counseling.
Money should not matter. In that regard, as we have seen in the case with Huguley, grandfathers and fathers money is tiny in regards to the ultimate damage to people and the schools reputation.
3. If after a counseling with the student, it is determined that the student should be removed from school, then do it. It does not matter if they are a star athlete or the brightest student in a physics progam. You ,as responsible people, are there to protect the interests and safety of all your students.
4. If you are operating with rules and proceedures more than five years old, then you need to review them.
yes, ATG, I knew he was being taken to alternative school. And sending a student there should have been another red flag. This student had been warning for months .But that is not and end in itself. He should have been identified, immediately moved and immediately started in counseling and if that did not help, he should have been sent to a psychiatric treatment center to live or at the least attend school their to keep working toward school goals and to keep him under psychiatric evaluations. The psychatric school has a full time doctor and nurse and therapist. The public school has the obligation to then give the psychiatric center the per pupil amount the public school would have gotten, Does all of this mean we can stop school violence? No, same as the foster care system can’t.
After my thirty years as school principal, I retired and took a job as educational director at a psycchiatric center. It was like a mini prison, but we loved our students and we wanted to help them. I had a 14 year old student that wanted to play football, so I went to confer with the middle school principal and football coach and they let him play only if I or a member of our staff accompanied him every time. There is just no point at which we can stop. We must keep on watching these students. We had to learn how to tale down kids while the nurse stuck them with risperdol and other drugs that the doctor prescribed. The day after a take down the kid would usually come in happy and loving us. But we always knew an episode was a finger click away. It was very constant hard work to provide what each student needed. They had severe psychiatric issues and the next stop would be living at the center under lockdown and a personal who watched the student constantly. Last stop would be a juvie center in a cell and usally governed by full time le, and sad to say the threat of being tazed or shot was the norm for these centers. I found being the education liason for the center put me in high regard with the kids because I constantly went to bat to help them. One time I was able to keep peace with 25 kids from 5 to 17 by reminding them daily about an outing coming up. They all earned it and I never in my carreer been so shocked. I had borrrowed tennis equipment and those kids hit and hit and hit. They loved it even more than the basketball goals we had on our campus. However by the next day we had the same old issues and new unexpected ones. This was a good paying job, but I spent most of my salary on the kids and I stayed late into the nights hunting grant money. This post is not about me, it is about how we have to never stop looking, listening and evaluating. I did this for three years, but finally got hit and threatened and cursed to the point that I asked for a security guard for the center which was turned down. I left that last Friday on a pretty good day. The kids did not know. I went back to pick u lovp my check and office things over a weekend. It was unreal. All of the bulletin boards I made for them that showed them doing things they loved, the games I got them they loved, anything they knew I went to bat to get for them they had destroyed. The solitary room had holes beaten into all of it…it looked like a bomb dropped on it because when I sent a student to solitary I went in with him or her. But, I had failed the kids by leaving them. They hated me and they adored me and I never knew which day or student would bring what physically or mentally. I had been a constant in their lives and when they found out I was retiring they were angry and I had failed them. I am not telling all this to bring attention to me. I would never say that I am an expert in anything…but what I want to impart is that we cannot quit trying until we are exhausted advocating just iike Blink.
Please forgive spelling and grammar mistakes in my post. I was writing with my heart and not my head.
Yes gigi, I know about chidren with physical and mental defects. The schools in Texas get extra money for teaching these children. They are kept apart from the regular population for the most part.
I did volunteer work for eight years in the music department of one of school systems in our area. These children are so mentally challenged that one never knows what they will do next. People who work with them have to be both caring and tough to survive.
I gave private music lessons to two of them. One, born a crack baby, was able to make it into the high school band program, but it was a new world each day.
May God bless you gigi. Stay as good as you are and that’s for Texas Grandfather, Blink and everyone here!
Jnpgh
I totally agree with you. I am living proof… “If anyone says to you ‘If you love me, you’ll do this’…it is only the beginning”. My ex said that to me, within the first month of dating. I wish someone would have told me what you said before I got in that relationship. It would have saved me many years of abuse. I know that we need to teach our kids when they are young what a good relationship means and what is never acceptable. Unfortunately with me my mom was abused too, so I didn’t know what to look for in a relationship. Schools in America need to educate all kids, just like we taught kids in the 80’s its not acceptable for someone to touch you inappropriately.
I know this is off the subject, but what is the deal with the Karen swift autopsy results? Why is there no news yet?
I just read an interview with one of the jurors. It seems that they did do a lot of work to come up with the 2nd degree murder charge. The first degree charge was tossed out early in the deliberations due to the fact that most believed George’s statement that he and Yeardley had talked prior to the fight. How could they be so naive to believe anything George said without something that would verify it.
Didn’t anyone inform these jurors that premeditation does not take but an instant in time? The very fact that he kicked the door in is an act of premeditation. At least three on the jury were professional people.
One of the players on George’s team admitted that George wss drunk at least four days a week. Makes me question how he was able to pass his classes. Or perhaps the UVA athletes are given a helper to go take classes so they can maintain passing grades. This same player also tells about George in a drunken rage attacked teammate and beat him up. And George was still playing on the team?
President Sullivan has issued a public statement that in the future if such a situation was observed that faculty and students should intervene. Come on Mrs. Sullivan, if this is the type of leadership you show, UVA can soon look for another bad situation. Where do the faculity and students get their authority to act? Will you take the necessary steps to provide a mechanism for handling such a task?
Great questions to ask of President Sullivan. Her words have no meaning without a mechanism for action. Much less, isn’t this an educational institution? Why are students not expected to learn how to deal with conflict,told the truth about etoh abuse, and how to recognize sociopathic behavior–as well as when to report criminal acts.
But the ignorance and lack of responsibility was admitted by the Lacrosse coach, when interviewed by the WAPO in 1999. Has he changed his mind and team rules following Yeardly’s murder?
“To what degree is heavy drinking a part of the lacrosse culture? When the Washington Post spoke with UVA men’s lacrosse coach Dom Starsia in 1999 about the team’s one-night-per-week drinking limit, Starsia remarked that the sport went “hand-in-hand” with alcohol.
“Whether it is post-game celebrations or just in general, there was something about the sport and alcohol, and Virginia was no different,” Starsia told the Post. He added that he “always thought alcohol was an issue here.”
http://tinyurl.com/6sdt83b
REALLY? I mean, really?
We are talking about Heavy Drinking. The same article quotes the bar operator as saying the Lacrosse men would come in several times a week around midnight and stay until closing. He said they would be already drunk when they arrived.
I’m sorry, but they don’t get to play on any of my teams.
Word Girl I agree with you about the heavy use of alcohol. I also have a major problem with team members heading for the local bar at midnight.
This will not stop as long as the school administration chooses to look the other way regarding the behavior of athletes with respect to
drugs and alcohol.
It will take an admistrator who has some real guts. He or she will have to tell the Board of Trustees that cleaning up the the culture of the school is job one. They may get some complaints from some students and parents, but if they don’t like it, the kid can transfer to another school.
I probably could not get a job coaching at a major school. It is so dangerous to allow drugs and alcohol to be in a students life. If I were to be a coach, there would be no leaving campus after 10:00P.M. except for friday and saturday nights. All athletes would live in a dorm on campus unless they lived locally with their parents.
There would be random drug and alcohol tests. Any athlete not passing a test would be moved to the last level in the program. If a second infraction occured, they would be dismissed from the team and any athletic scholarship would be withdrawn. Few coaches have the fortitude to implement such a program.
get rid of the fraternity / sorority system first and foremost.
drug and alcohol tests should be done at the fraternity / sorority level first.
Your are right on thre mark cosmo. Sixty plus years ago I found that most of those organizations existed to provide a place to have a party which meant that many consumed alcohol.
I was a busy guy and did not have time for their foolishness.
Cosmos- get rid of the frat/sorority system? How about getting rid of problems WITHIN the system. I find your suggestion rather harsh, as I am aware of many, many positive results that come from fraternities and sororities. Just like sports teams in college- if there is a problem with an athlete on the team, you get rid of the problem or the athlete- don’t banish the athletic team. And I have both in my family- sorority girls who have developed into leaders through the opportunities that their organization has provided, not to mention their philanthropic values. I also have a college athlete who aspires to use his athleticism in a professional career.
Sorry for the rant, and it is not personal, but universities can do better jobs of identifying and controlling issues, without eliminating fraternities.
And my students had academic scholarships, as well as taking the time for sororities and athletics.
In this case, IFC went further than the state-run alcohol stores. They closed early at 6 p.m. IFC held no parties that day, and made an active effort to affect the weekend.
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2012/01/31/ifc_bans_fraternity_parties_on_state_pattys_day.aspx
sure get rid of the problems within the system, but if that doesn’t work, then get rid of the system. it isn’t like this is the first time in state or national history that something like this has happened. and sure it isn’t isolated to the frat/soror system, but i would be very curious to see how many of these time incidents occur WITHIN the system vs. outside of … alcohol poisoning, suicide, etc.
of course this applies to the NCAA athletic system as well.
Lizzy
Thanks for the link about the IFC canceling parties for St. Patricks day. Maybe they are becoming aware of the dangers of parties that can get out of control. We adults know the dangers, but their recognition indicates that they were willing to take steps to prevent a problem. As Pogo would say “we have discovered the problem and the problem is us”.
According to today’s news on WRIC.com, Huguely’s lawyers are requesting a hearing for a retrial.
If I were Huguely’s lawyers, I would be very careful what I asked for. A new trial with a new set of jurors could get their client the death penality.
A first degree murder charge could keep him isolated on death row for a long time.
Without looking at the trial transcript, we have no clue as to the reason for the hearing unless they expressed the reason in the news release.
Way to go Yeardley’s Mom & you rightly chose to target coaches:
http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=16279118
Only coaches have the power & authority to “clean up” the impact of alcohol & often accompanying behavioral acting out on a team. Usually in lax, coaches “did it too” and excuse it, or are simply parent & AD suck ups.
Applause.
I had an extensive conversation about this today. More to come on that. Thanks Rose.
B
Late, but so glad to hear about this lawsuit. Totally justified and I hope they get the message since they don’t seem to have the courage to make the changesin guidance our young people deserve.
24 years…………
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/30/13571569-former-uva-lacrosse-player-huguely-gets-23-years-in-death-of-ex-girlfriend-yeardley-love?lite
I believe VA is mandatory serve of 85%, but anyone is fine to correct me if that is not accurate.
B
Not sure if this is the right article but it looks as if the appeal has been granted based on the fact that one of his lead attorneys was ill for nine days of the trial.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/george-huguely-allowed-appeal-uva-murder-conviction/story?id=19052212#.UXr6irVQE2A
Hopefully, he’ll never see the outside again, but it seems we never know these days.