TV Anchor's High Profile Case Brings Familiar Jurors
At Monday's jury selection, only 1 in 100 hadn't heard of Anne Pressly's murder.
Nov. 3, 2009— -- Even before testimony begins, the high-profile nature of popular Little Rock, Ark., anchorwoman Anne Pressly's murder case revealed itself during jury selection Monday after only one in 100 potential jurors said they had never heard of the case.
Only four jurors were seated out of a larger-than-normal pool. Attorneys will be back in court today to try again. Opening arguments are expected later this week.
Curtis Lavelle Vance stands accused of beating Pressly, 26, a rising star on the local morning news scene, into a coma and raping her in her apartment in October 2008 after a break-in. The face so many in her hometown had come to know was crushed beyond recognition. Five days after the attack, Pressly's brain stem ruptured and she died.
Vance, 28, of Marianna, Ark., is charged with capital murder. He pleaded not guilty to the attack. If convicted, Vance could face the death penalty or a life sentence.
In the course of the trial, the defense is expected to challenge DNA evidence and the series of convoluted confessions Vance allegedly made to police, ABC News' Little Rock affiliate KATV reported.
Police said Vance did not know the anchorwoman prior to allegedly beating her to death.
Pressly's parents hope that a trial will answer the questions that keep them up at night.
"What kind of monster are you that would take the life of an innocent child?" asked her mother Patti Cannady. "What fills you with rage and hatred and no respect for human life? Why did you have to hurt my child and take her life?"
As reported on "20/20" in December 2008, the investigation into Pressly's murder may have helped solve a second crime.
Kristen Edwards, of Marianna, Ark., was raped and attacked in April. Police say that DNA evidence from Pressly's crime scene matched Edwards' attacker, and detectives from both cities collaborated to search for a suspect.
Some 100 miles away, Edwards, a schoolteacher and fan of Pressly, was attacked while getting ready for work.
"It was a surprise," Edwards told ABC News. "He was hiding in my living room, and I never saw it coming. Never saw it coming." Edwards' attacker had come at her from behind, and forced her to lie on her stomach so she could not see his face.
Edwards said her rapist warned her not to turn around, and told her he had a gun and would kill her if she tried to look at him. And while she feared for her life until the end, she survived.
"I pretty much did as I was told to do," she said. "I didn't look, I didn't fight, I stopped yelling -- that sort of thing."
But Anne Pressly fought back against her attacker. Doctors also found that her left hand had been broken -- a defensive wound.
Patti Cannady, found her daughter the morning after the attack.
"It was brutal...blood all over the walls; [I] could not recognize her," she said.
"It is the worst nightmare that any human being could ever have to face," said Cannady. "It is a nightmare to lose a child. To find your child. Our lives will never be the same."
She said she is 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."
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