George Huguely Trial Postponed Because His Attorney Is Sick

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. Feb. 17, 2012 — -- George Huguely V's murder trial resumed briefly today over his objections but went into recess a few witnesses later because his defense attorney is sick. Huguely preferred not to proceed without both his lawyers, but the judge initially decided to carry on.

Defense attorney Rhonda Quagliana's unspecified illness forced the court to postpone the trial Thursday, and defense co-counsel Fran Lawrence arrived to court solo this morning with word that she was still ill. Quagliana has handled the defense's medical experts.

"We will not have any difficulty finishing tomorrow," Lawrence reassured the judge.

But the judge later postponed the session after Lawrence informed the court that Quagliana was too ill to defend her client.

Court will resume at 9 a.m. Saturday in Charlottesville, Va., and not again until Wednesday.

The medical experts Quagliana has been preparing to question are key to Huguely's defense. He has been charged with first-degree murder, but his defense attorneys said in opening statements that the most serious charge jurors should consider is involuntary manslaughter.

The prosecution has alleged that Huguley, after a day of heavy drinking, beat Yeardley Love in her bedroom and then left her to die. Experts for the prosecution said that Love died from blunt force trauma to the head. Both of them were lacrosse players at the University of Virginia.

The defense opened its case Wednesday with a medical expert who told a radically different story.

A brain expert for the defense testified that Love died by suffocating in her pillow after a day of heavy drinking.

Neuropathologist Dr. Jan Leestma told the court that Love's cause of death was deprivation of blood flow and oxygen to the brain. Love was found bloody and face-down in a pillow, which would make breathing very difficult, Leestma said.

The doctor testified that the combination of Love's position and her pillow's being wet from blood could have produced the lack of oxygen that led to suffocating.

Testimony began this morning with non-medical witnesses, including Huguely's aunt Alina Massaro who narrated surveillance video from a burger bar, Boylan Heights, where she and her daughters saw Huguley and Love the night before Love's death.

Massaro called her nephew "Georgie" as she narrated the tape and identified him and Love holding hands. She said they were all laughing and having a good time, with no indication that anything was wrong between the two.

Only the jurors, judge, attorneys, Huguely and Massaro could see the tape. It was not visible to the public or the media.

The jurors watched the video intently, with some even leaning forward in their chairs to avoid missing anything.

Two young women that were in high school at the time of Love's death and were in Huguely's apartment the night Love allegedly hit him with her purse also testified.

The young women testified that they had been visiting the University of Virginia and that they were waiting in Huguely's apartment while their host was elsewhere.

One of the women said Huguely was "perfectly nice" and that Love was angry when she came in and asked Huguely if these were the girls he had been texting.

The trial has revealed the tumultuous nature of Huguely and Love's relationship, complete with jealousy, infidelity and more than one aggressive encounter between the two. Other friends of the former couple testified earlier in the trial that they had walked in on Huguely with a terrified Love struggling to breathe as he held her in a choke hold.

Follow ABC News' Cleopatra Andreadis on Twitter for the latest on the trial.

Prosecutors rested their case Wednesday after interviewing nearly 50 witnesses in about five and a half days in court. The judge is expected to hand the case over to the jury Saturday or Wednesday.

"I think the jury will be persuaded that [Huguely] engaged in conduct that caused her death and there was some sufficient culpability," University of Virginia law professor Anne Coughlin told ABCNews.com. "The issue is how culpable. How culpable was his mental state?

"We know that he was in that room, that there was some conduct that caused death and the issue is what was in his mind?"

Although Huguely, 24, was charged with first degree murder, along with five other charges, Coughlin anticipates that the judge will present the jurors with instructions that include a menu of options that include second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and voluntary manslaughter.

Based on what Huguely is ultimately charged with, he faces anywhere from one year to life in prison.

"So you can see the stakes involved for both sides," Coughlin said. "It's huge. And it all comes down to his mental state."

Love, 22, was a star lacrosse player at the school and a senior weeks away from graduation. Huguely was also a lacrosse player for the school's nationally ranked team.

Christina Ng contributed to this story from New York.