Close to 30 people gathered at the courtroom to review evidence which had been kept from the media and public until today.
After getting a close look at key pieces of evidence in the George Huguely V murder trial, Charlottesville attorney Scott Goodman was struck by how important Huguely's police interrogation tape was in the prosecutor's case against him.
"His own statements convicted him," said Goodman, after watching the evidence review in court Tuesday morning.
During the trial the hour long tape was played for the jury but only heard by the courtroom. On Tuesday it was played again and this time visible to the public.
Goodman says that he was struck by Huguely’s breakdown halfway through.
"The utter devastation he exhibited upon learning that Ms. Love had been killed," said Goodman.
Huguely reacted on the tape by putting his head down on the table in front of him and started to hyperventilate through tears.
He repeated over and over that he refused to believe Love was dead. In the middle of Huguely's reaction police stand him up to handcuff him.
Huguely can be seen leaning his head against a cement wall while claiming, "Oh my God kill me".
Huguely then sits and continues to stomp his foot on the floor adamantly as he accuses detectives of lying after telling him he was there for an assault charge.
"Not telling him what police already knew to be true… that Ms. Love was dead," said Goodman.
About 200 crime scene photos and email correspondences were also shown briefly in court. Long threads that exchanged insults between Love and Huguely in the days before her death we put on a monitor for the public to read.
Both Love and Huguely accused the other of infidelity and called each other names like desperate, psycho, spoiled brat and pathetic. Pictures of Love's bedroom showed a blood-stained pillow but little else looked disrupted or placed Huguely at the scene.
"No conviction could have been obtained in this case without his statement, there wouldn't have been enough evidence," said Goodman.
