(Image credit: Sabrina Schaeffer, The Daily Progress/AP Photo

The fate of convicted murderer and former University of Virginia lacrosse player George Huguely V will be decided in a formal sentencing on Aug. 30, a Virginia judge ruled today.

In February, a jury recommended that a judge sentence Huguely to 26 years in prison for the beating death of ex-girlfriend and classmate Yeardley Love. The judge can either confirm or lessen the sentence, but he cannot increase it.

The jury recommended 25 years in prison for the second-degree murder conviction and one year for a grand larceny conviction for stealing Love's laptop computer.

Huguely, 25, was not present at today's hearing and the judge denied several efforts by the defense team to discuss motions for a retrial. The judge said that should be discussed at a different date.

There will be a hearing on Thursday to discuss a motion to release evidence from the trial to the media for "educational purposes." The evidence-including a video of Huguely's police interrogation and letters Huguely wrote to Love-were kept from the media and the public throughout the trial.

Huguely was accused of killing Love in a drunken rage in 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.