(AP) – A man was convicted of capital murder Wednesday for beating an Arkansas TV anchorwoman so brutally that her face was shattered and she never regained consciousness before dying five days later.
Curtis Lavelle Vance could face the death penalty for the assault on Anne Pressly at her Little Rock bungalow. The same jury that convicted him reconvened to hear testimony about whether he should be put to death or imprisoned without the possibility of parole.
Vance, 29, of Marianna, was also convicted of residential burglary along with rape and theft of property in the Oct. 20, 2008, attack. Once jurors delivered the guilty verdict, Vance gestured toward the empty jury box, pointed to his eyes and ears and shook his head.
The weekend before she was attacked, Pressly, a 26-year-old local celebrity, had been celebrating her bit part in the President Bush biopic “W.” Due on KATV’s “Daybreak” program at 5 a.m. that Monday morning, she never answered more than 40 wake-up calls made by her parents.
An emergency room doctor at St. Vincent Infirmary believed Pressly, a blonde, had red hair because there was so much blood. Dr. Therese McBride testified that the front of Pressly’s skull and jaw were beaten so severely that she did not appear human.
Pressly slipped into a coma after the attack and died five days later without regaining consciousness.
KATV, where Pressly worked, had raised $50,000 for a reward fund; the city’s police department will decide how it is distributed. The station also plans to raise money to fund a broadcast school scholarship in Pressly’s name.
A DNA expert testified that a single hair found in Pressly’s bedroom placed Vance at the scene. Police said the genetic evidence matched that from a rape in Vance’s hometown half a year earlier.
Marianna police said Vance had been seen loitering near homes that had recently been burglarized and Little Rock police arranged an interview. Vance volunteered a swab from the inside of his cheek for DNA testing, police said, and lab results linked the crimes. Vance faces a separate rape charge in Marianna, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
As Vance left the courthouse, family members shouted “Love ya, Lavelle!” and he said “Love you!”
Then he shouted, “It’s a corrupted system!”
