George Huguely Trial: Told Police in Video Statement He 'Shook Her a Little' - East Idaho News
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George Huguely Trial: Told Police in Video Statement He ‘Shook Her a Little’

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Getty 020612 BloodyLacrosseStickiStock?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1328894624837iStockphoto/Thinkstock(CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.) — George Huguely V told police in his video-taped statement that when he went to see Yeardley Love the night of her death he told her to “chill out” and “shook her a little.”

“We were just going to talk,” Huguely told the officer in the video. “It was not at all a good conversation.”

Investigators called Huguely to the police station for an interrogation hours after the discovery of his ex-girlfriend and University of Virginia classmate’s lifeless body in her bedroom.

“I’m not here to do anything. I’m here to talk to you about this past week,” Huguely said he told Love.

Huguely told police that he went to talk to Love because she was “freaked out” about something that had occurred between the two. It is unclear what he was referring to, but there were several volatile encounters between the two in the weeks leading up to Love’s death. Huguely had been caught with Love in a chokehold days before and Love had attacked Huguely with her purse in an apparent fit of jealousy.

Huguely said that while he was trying to talk to Love, she repeatedly banged her own head against a wall.

“Her back was against the wall talking and she started getting all depressive,” he said. “I told her to chill out and shook her a little.”

The police officer asked Huguely if he choked her or punched her in the neck.

“I may have grabbed her a bit by the neck, but I never strangled her,” Huguely said. “We were wrestling. I pushed her onto the bed and left.”

The investigator who questioned Huguely was Det. Lisa Reeves, who testified right before the video was played. She said that Huguely cooperated with police when asked to come to the station and signed a document stating that he understood his Miranda Rights.

“I noticed bruising on the knuckles and a fresh cut on his arm,” Reeves testified. “He seems like a reasonable suspect for this crime.”

The court has been highly sensitive to privacy throughout the trial, showing graphic photos of Love’s lifeless body only to jurors and not to the media or the public present inside the courtroom. It is expected that the video will also only be shown to the jury.

Huguely, 24, is charged with first degree murder as well as five other charges in the death of his ex-girlfriend and University of Virginia classmate.

Love, 22, was a star lacrosse player at the school and a senior just weeks away from graduation. Huguely was also a lacrosse player for the school’s nationally ranked team.

Prosecutors allege that an enraged Huguely allegedly kicked through the door of Love’s bedroom the night she died and shook her, banging her head against the wall, before leaving her bleeding. A bloody Love was later found face-down on her bed by a roommate. Her face was covered in scrapes and bruises, according to a police warrant, and her right eye was swollen shut.

The defense has claimed that Love’s death was caused by a fatal combination of Adderall and alcohol that could have stopped her heart and that jurors should consider Huguely’s role in her death as involuntary manslaughter at the most.  

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