George Huguely Trial: Defense and Prosecution Rest Their Cases
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Feb. 18, 2012 — -- Both sides have rested in the murder trial of former University of Virginia lacrosse player George Huguely, who waived his right to testify.
Prosecutors did not call any rebuttal witnesses and the jury could have a verdict as early as tonight.
Jurors are receiving their instructions and prosecutors and defense attorneys are expected to present their closing arguments shortly.
The defense's final witness, Dr. Ronald Uscinski, testified today that Virginia women's lacrosse player Yeardley Love's skull and brain showed no evidence of blunt force trauma, which contradicts the prosecution's claim that Love died from blunt force trauma to the head after Huguely beat her severly and left her to die.
"[There's] unquestionable head trauma in this case, but not significant brain trauma," Uscinski said.
Uscinski's testimony came after a drama-filled morning in the Charlottesville, Va. courtroom. His testimony was tainted because defense attorneys broke court rules by improperly sending their medical expert information about a prosecution witness' testimony.
Uscinski was limited in what he could talk about on the stand because of emails sent after the trial had begun.
After a tense back-and-forth with attorneys, Judge Edward Hogshire ruled ruled that Uscinski would be allowed to testify, but not about any topics that were addressed in three emails sent to him from the defense team, including CPR.
The defense attorneys said the mistake did not affect their witness' credibility.
"This is not going to affect his testimony. He doesn't need that information," the defense attorney said. "It was amazingly thoughtless but not calculated."
Hogshire told the defense that "this is an incredibly important issue" and he was "incredibly disappointed" in their conduct.
"It was done by council and it was done in violation of the rule on witnesses," the judge said.
Virginia's "Rule on Witnesses" prohibits witnesses from being empowered with certain information before their testimony once the trial is in progress.
Prosecutor Warner "Dave" Chapman provided the judge with three emails from the defense team in which defense witness Uscinski is included. The emails reportedly included information that summarized prosecution witness Dr. Renu Virmani's testimony.
Virmani is a cardiac pathologist who testified that "nothing was wrong with [Yeardley Love's] heart that caused her death." This was central to the prosecution's case in disproving the defense's claim that Love died from a fatal combination of alcohol and Adderall that stopped her heart.
Uscinski told the judge he did not recall seeing the email, but the judge could decide that he is no longer allowed to testify.
When attorneys told the witness what his restrictions were since the email drama his response was, "Are you kidding me?"
Three emails were in question.
Two were sent on Feb. 10 and originated from Dr. Jack Daniel, a pathologist who testified in a December 2010 preliminary hearing that Love died from a caridiac arrhythmia due to drugs in her system, not from a severe beating from Huguely.
On one email, the subject line read, "RE: Subject Testimony" and the subject on the other was "RE: Dr. Vermani." The emails described Vermani's testimony.
The third email originated from defense attorney Rhonda Quagliana and was sent to three people, including Uscinski. It included information about CPR and blood reperfusion, tissue damage caused when blood returns to the tissue after a period when oxygen has been lacking.
"It is beyond belief that we are having to address this in this type of trial," Chapman said. He called the issues "something that should've never happened."
Chapman argued that the defense's witness has an advantage by knowing the topics at play ahead of time and that his knowledge is a "prejudice to [the] commonwealth."
Follow ABC News' Cleopatra Andreadis on Twitter for the latest on the trial.
Court resumed today after a two-day delay due to a defense attorney's illness, but jurors have still not been brought into court while attorneys argue over the potentially rule-breaking emails.
