Man convicted in murder of anchorwoman

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (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, 29, 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.

After the verdict, Pressly’s mother, Patti Cannady, raised a hand and said, “Praise God. Praise God.” She burst into sobs.

Vance, of Marianna, Ark., 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 George W. Bush biopic “W.” Due on KATV’s “Daybreak” program at 5 a.m. that Monday, she never answered more than 40 wake-up calls made by her parents.

In confessions made to police, Vance said he went to Pressly’s neighborhood looking to steal laptop computers. After entering her home through a Dutch door she left open for her dogs, authorities said, Vance found the computer he sought - and Pressly.

Ms. Cannady, who was in town, told jurors that she drove to her daughter’s house and found her battered and lying in a fetal position on her bed.

“Anne, Momma’s here. Momma’s here,” Ms. Cannady called to her daughter, according to her testimony. Pressly reached weakly with her right arm, moaning.

After calling for an ambulance, Ms. Cannady closed her eyes, lifted her head and prayed. When she opened her eyes, she saw blood on the ceiling.

“That’s how horrific … her attack was. She was beyond recognition,” Ms. Cannady told jurors.

An emergency-room doctor at St. Vincent Infirmary thought 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 her name.

“The good thing is, Anne will never be forgotten. This guy will be forgotten,” local radio host David Bazzel said after the verdict was read.

A native of Greenville, S.C., Pressly was a graduate of Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn. In the Oliver Stone-directed movie “W,” she appeared briefly as a conservative commentator who speaks favorably of Mr. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” event on an aircraft carrier after the start of the Iraq War.

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