Anne Pressly's Murderer Convicted: 'It Was a Big Sigh of Relief,' Friend Says

Nov. 12, 2009— -- The verdict meant a huge sigh of relief for the Pressly family, according to a friend. After only a few hours of deliberation Wednesday, a jury found Curtis Vance guilty in the murder and rape of Little Rock, Ark., anchorwoman Anne Pressly.

"It feels like we've held our breath over the last year and we were finally able to exhale a little bit," Jessica Dean, a friend of Pressly's, told "Good Morning America" this morning.

Prosecutors told the jurors in the trial that DNA evidence proved that Vance, 29, was the one who broke into Pressly's home last October and savagely beat and raped her until she was unconscious. Pressly died five days later.

Dean described her friend as remarkably funny, smart and dedicated.

"She was the most loyal of friends," Dean said. "She was one of those people who made you laugh from the belly all the way up."

Today the jury will decide whether Vance should receive the death penalty or life in prison.

Prosecutors said the DNA evidence also linked Vance to another attack, the rape of a schoolteacher in Marianna, Ark., about 100 miles away. The defense argued that police duped Vance into giving several contradictory confessions regarding Pressly's death.

Patti Cannady, Pressly's mother, was the first person to see her daughter lying unconscious, bloodied and beaten "beyond recognition." Cannady was among the first witnesses to take the stand.

Dean described Pressly's parents as "pillars of strength" through the ordeal.

"They have set this example, and I know they have drawn strongly from their faith," Dean said. "When we get into the fetal position and can't do it anymore we look to Patti and Guy."

From the witness stand, Cannady stared down at Vance and then, choking back tears, described the nightmare of discovering her daughter's battered body.

"It was horrific," she told the jury. "I absolutely could not take the scene in. I could not imagine what I was seeing when I found my daughter."

Pressly was a popular morning news anchor in Little Rock. Before the attack, her parents used to call at 3 a.m. to make sure she was awake. But on the morning of Oct. 20, 2008, after repeated calls, there was no answer. Frantic, Cannady rushed to her daughter's home.

She found the back door wide open, and inside, her daughter was gasping for breath in a pool of blood.

"It was Anne, but she was so swollen and her hair was completely matted with blood, she was beyond recognition," Cannady said. "There was blood on the ceiling. That's how horrific her attack was."

A nurse who also testified told the court she had never seen anyone so badly wounded who was still alive.

In opening statements, prosecutors told jurors that DNA evidence would provide all the proof necessary to convince them that Vance is guilty and also linked to another brutal rape. The defense said Vance was arrested only because police were under pressure to arrest someone in for Pressly's killing.

Cannady had previously said she was determined to look her daughter's murderer in the eye.

"I am not leaving," she said. "I will see this person eye-to-eye. They'll have to face me. And God."