Suspect pleads not guilty in University of Virginia lacrosse player's death

Lacrosse Tragedy Strikes University of Virginia

Friends and family remember 22-year-old Yeardley Love, a lacrosse player at the University of Virginia, after she was found dead in her bedroom on May 3, 2010.

A University of Virginia lacrosse player pleaded not guilty on Monday to killing his former girlfriend in 2010.

George Huguely V, 24, of Chevy Chase, Md., entered the plea in Charlottesville Circuit Court to charges of first-degree murder, robbery, burglary, breaking and entering, grand larceny and murder in the commission of a felony.

Yeardley Love, Huguely's 22-year-old former girlfriend and a player on the university's women's lacrosse team, was found dead in her apartment on May 3, 2010. Police said Huguely told investigators he kicked in Love's bedroom door and shook her, causing her head to violently hit a wall several times.

Huguely said he did not know she was dead when he left her apartment, according to court documents cited by The Daily Progress of Charlottesville. His attorneys are expected to argue that Love died of complications from prescription drugs rather than blunt force trauma to the head, the newspaper reports.

Jury selection in the case began on Monday. No jurors had been seated as of midday. A judge has barred cameras from the courtroom.

During jury selection, a prospective juror who is a University of Virginia professor was asked by Huguely's attorney if the case reflected badly on the school, The Daily Progress reports.

"It gets my institution in the news in an unfortunate light, and that can't be good," he said. "It would be better if the news were another Nobel Prize."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.