Motion for New Trial Filed in Huguely Murder Case - NBC29 WVIR Charlottesville, VA News, Sports and Weather

The attorneys representing former University of Virginia lacrosse player George Huguely are asking the court to set aside his second-degree murder and grand larceny convictions and grant him a new trial. The motion was filed Friday afternoon, within hours of the legal time limit for doing so. It was a motion the defense was expected to make.

Huguely was convicted in February of robbing and killing his ex-girlfriend Yeardley Love, also a fourth-year student at UVA and a member of the women's lacrosse team.

The motion to set aside the verdict and order a new trial spells out a long list of specific mistakes made during the 12-day trial in Judge Edward Hogshire's Charlottesville Circuit courtroom. Among them are alleged mistakes before the trial, during jury selection, during the trial itself, and in instructions to jurors just before they began their deliberations.

Defense attorneys Fran Lawrence and Rhonda Quagliana identified at least eight points in their 74-page filings:

1. The court erred in denying their pretrial motions about jury selection, questioning them about potential bias, and by not sequestering them during the trial.
2. The court erred in refusing to strike seven jurors "for cause" because of their potential bias.
3. That the judge violated Huguely's rights to proper legal representation when Ms. Quagliana became seriously ill during the trial and the judge refused to properly suspend the hearings until she could fully recover.
4. That the court erred in placing an unyielding emphasis on finishing the case "on time" and within the two week window that had been scheduled.
5. That Judge Hogshire improperly instructed the jury on how to consider their deliberations, specifically as it concerns "malice".
6. That the court improperly limited defense medical testimony concerning the trauma to Ms. Love's brain.
7. That there was not enough evidence to support the grand larceny charge because the computer taken from Love's apartment was worth, the defense says, less than $200.
8. That there was not enough evidence to support a second degree murder conviction, because the defense argues that the fatal injury to Love, was caused by her falling from her bed.

The jury recommended that Huguely serve 25 years for the homicide and one year on the grand larceny charge for taking Love's laptop computer. Formal sentencing is set for August 30.

Huguely remains in custody pending this appeal. He and others - including UVA and members of the university athletics department - face separate multimillion dollar civil actions filed by the Love family.  None of those civil cases have yet to be scheduled for trial.