Man gets life without parole in Arkansas TV anchor's murder
CNN / November 12, 2009 (CNN's Carolina Sanchez contributed to this report.)
(CNN) -- A jury sentenced an Arkansas man to life in prison without parole for killing a television anchor, officials said Thursday.
The Pulaski County, Arkansas, jury on Wednesday convicted Curtis Lavelle Vance, 29, of capital murder, residential burglary, rape and theft of property in the October 2008 slaying of Anne Pressly, 26.
Pressly, the morning news anchor for CNN affiliate KATV, was found beaten and unconscious in her home. She died five days later.
Vance's sentencing phase began after he was convicted Wednesday of capital murder, rape and burglary.
Jurors were tasked with deciding whether the aggravating circumstances in favor of the death penalty outweighed the mitigating circumstances.
"Tonight, they have come back with a sentence, a sentence that they believe, and we share with them, is the harshest possible sentence for this gentleman going forward, where he will now spend the rest of his natural life in a 6-by-9 cell with nothing to think about but what he has done," said Guy Cannady, stepfather of the victim.
(snip)
Among the defense witnesses presented Thursday was Vance's mother, Jacqueline Vance Burnett, CNN affiliate KARK reported. Burnett cried on the stand as she spoke about her battle with crack addiction and admitted abusing her son when he was a child, including an incident when he was 7 years old and she slammed his head into a brick wall, the station said.
READ: CURTIS VANCE SENTENCED FOR KILLING ANCHORWOMAN ANNE PRESSLY
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/12/arkansas.anchor.slain/
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