UPDATE: Huguely jury to begin deliberations on Wednesday

The jury in the murder trial of the George W. Huguely will begin deliberations on Wednesday in Charlottesville Circuit Court.

After closing arguments by prosecution and defense attorneys this evening, Judge Edward L. Hogshire asked the jury to return to the jury room and consider whether they wanted to begin deliberations immediately or wait until Wednesday.

The jury quickly returned and told the judge that they were too tired to continue and wanted to wait.

The several-day delay in resuming the trial is required because the court is closed on Monday for Presidents Day and the judge must preside over grand jury proceedings on Tuesday.

(This has been a breaking news update. Check back for more details as they become available. Read more in tomorrow's Richmond Times-Dispatch.)

Posted at 4:47 p.m.

The prosecution presnted its closing arguments in the murder trial of George W. Huguely V this afternoon, with prosecutor David Chapman asking the jury to convict the former University of Virginia lacrosse player on a felony murder charge.

Chapman, Charlottesville's commonwealth's attorney, emphasized the intoxication of Huguely and the defenselessness of his alleged victim, Yeardley Love, in asking for the murder conviction.

The charge of felony murder in a commission of a robbery carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. Chapman also asked that Huguely be found guilty of robbery, grand larcency and breaking and entering charges.

After Chapman concluded, defense attorney Francis McQ. Lawrence began his closing argument.

The closing arguments began after Lawrence rested the defense's case this afternoon after a lunch break.

Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Edward L. Hogshire then instructed the jury that they could find Huguely guilty of a lesser charge of involuntary or voluntary manslaughter as well as murder.

Huguely is on trial for the death of Love, 22, a U.Va. senior and lacrosse player who was found dead in her apartment May 3, 2010. Huguely and Love had an on-again, off-again relationship.

Earlier, Lawrence had asked the judge to set aside all charges on the basis of insufficient evidence, but the judge said he would leave the question of guilt or innocence to the jury.

Before lunch, a neurologist testifying for the defense testified that he saw no significant evidence of blunt-force trauma in Yeardley Love's brain.

"There may have been head trauma, but there's a not a lot of significant brain trauma," Dr. Ronald Uscinski said, referring to surface bruising on the right side of Love's head.

Uscinski also testified that it appears to him that Love died from a deprivation of oxygen to her brain, but he did not go into the pathology of that explanation.

Uscinski's testimony came after Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Edward L. Hogshire had restricted the topics he could address because of prior e-mail messages he received from defense lawyers.

Hogshire's ruling came after an effort by Chapman to disqualify witnesses for the defense who were made aware of earlier testimony in the case.

The trial of Huguely resumed this morning at 9:40 with all lawyers present, including a defense lawyer who had taken ill Thursday, but returned to the case this morning.

(This has been a breaking news update. Check back for more details as they become available. Read more in tomorrow's Richmond Times-Dispatch.)