Yeardley Love's Mom Sues Killer George Huguely for $30M

Sharon Love filed a wrongful death suit against the former UVA lacrosse star.

ByABC News
April 27, 2012, 10:13 AM

April 27, 2012 — -- The mother of slain UVA lacrosse star Yeardley Love is suing her daughter's convicted killer and ex-boyfriend George Huguely V for $30 million in a wrongful death lawsuit.

Huguely, 25, killed Love, 22, in a drunken rage in May 2010 just weeks before she was to graduate from the University of Virginia. Both Huguely and Love were star lacrosse players on the university's elite teams.

Huguely was found guilty of second-degree murder and grand larceny, resulting from an allegation that he stole Love's laptop. He has not yet been sentenced.

The suit was filed in Charlottesville Circuit Court in Virginia on Wednesday under the name of Love's mother Sharon Love, listed as the administrator of her daughter's estate.

Love asks for $29,450,000 in compensatory damages and $1,000,000 in punitive damages, plus interest from the date of occurrence, May 2-3, 2010.

There are six counts in the suit: three types of negligence counts, one count of willful and malicious injury and death, one count of assault and one count for punitive damages.

"Huguely was negligent in the occurrence, insofar as he failed to use ordinary care, leading to an accident for which he was responsible that resulted in the injuries and death of Love," the lawsuit stated.

It also claims that Yeardley Love had a life expectancy of 58.9 years, according to a Table of Life Expectancy, which helped in calculating the sum of the monetary damages the Love family is asking for.

The lawsuit accuses Huguely of acting with "actual malice" and being "so reckless" that he showed a conscious disregard for Love's safety and life.

Love's family suffered "sorrow, mental anguish, and loss of solace, which may include society, companionship, comfort, guidance, kindly offices, and advice of the decedent," according to the damages portion of the filing.

The family says the $29 million sum also includes Love's loss of income as well as funeral and burial expenses.

Yeardley Love's beneficiaries are her mother Sharon Love and sister Lexie Love. The women of the Love family were constant fixtures in the courtroom throughout Huguely's trial. They both gave emotional testimonies in Huguely's pre-sentencing hearing, pleading for the jury to punish Huguely.

Sharon Love sobbed as she described life without her daughter.

"It's still with me every day from sunup to sundown," Love said through tears. "Every single day is different. Some days it's just unbearable."

"Every year goes by, I like to wonder what she would be doing now," Love's mother said.

Lexie Love was also tearful as she told the jury, "We shared a bathroom...All her stuff is still there...I don't want to touch or change a thing."

In telling how much she missed her sister, Lexie Love said, "I've never wanted something so bad in my life as it is to see her face again. ... It physically hurts."

Over 10 days in court, jurors listened to testimony from nearly 60 witnesses and saw a video of Huguely's police statement, graphic photos of Love's battered body, and read text and email correspondence between the two.

Neither the prosecution nor the defense denied that Huguely was in Love's room the night of her death and was involved in an altercation with her. They differed on the severity of the encounter and whether Huguely was directly and intentionally responsible for Love's death.

Huguely's attorneys Fran Lawrence and Rhonda Quagliana did not immediately respond to requests for comment from ABCNews.com regarding the lawsuit. The defense team has expressed their desire for a retrial in court.

In February, the jury recommended 25 years in prison for the second-degree murder conviction and one year for a grand larceny conviction. The judge can either confirm or lessen the sentence, but he cannot increase it. Huguely's sentencing date has been set for Aug. 30.