Ex-U. of Virginia lacrosse player guilty

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Feb. 22 (UPI) -- A jury in Charlottesville, Va., convicted a former University of Virginia lacrosse player of killing his ex-girlfriend, who also was a lacrosse player.

The seven-man, five-woman jury deliberated about 9 hours before finding George Huguely V, 24, guilty of second-degree murder and grand larceny Wednesday in the slaying of Yeardley Love, 22, ABC News reported.

Huguely showed little reaction to the verdict, putting his hands to his face near his chin a few times and glancing briefly at family and friends, the network said.

He faces 5-40 years in prison on the murder charge and as much as 20 years on the larceny count.

Authorities said Huguely savagely beat Love to death in a drunken rage in 2010 just weeks before she was to graduate from the university.

Huguely and Love had a hot-and-cold relationship and defense lawyers said Huguely and Love fought but he had left her bedroom thinking she was alive.