Book him

The jury is back in the deliberation room today down in Charlottesville VA in the case of how to punish George Huguely.  Well, let me restate that.  They are still deciding on his guilt or innocence, but no one is denying that he stormed into his girlfriend Yeardley Love's apartment on a day when he had consumed some 20 drinks and got into a violent fracas with her.  When he left, there was a hole in the wall made by her head, and she was deceased.  So, we can't call him a murderer yet.  Even though there was a well-witnessed previous melee in which he choked her, and even though there was that email he sent her that contained the phrase "I should have killed you" for going out with some other guy, even though old George did not have a spotless record of faithfulness.

Huguely in an earlier mugshot

From all indications, his defense team put on a slipshod exhibition, which surprised me quite a bit. They are well-to-do people who sent this horror of a son to a prep school that costs $36,000 a year, and then to the University of Virginia, where he studied lacrosse, dissolute living and violence over a four-year stint that included several arrests.  Perhaps the plan all along was to mount a 1/2-assed defense so that the appeal would go more smoothly.  I don't know the legal ins and outs of all that, but I figure that today, if the jury gets started reviewing all the facts by 9 or 10 in the morning, they should be able to get to the salad bar down at Ruby Tuesday's by noon, their duty done.

See you around, George.  And don't drop your soap!