A jury that convicted a man of capital murder in the beating death of an Arkansas TV anchorwoman was weighing Thursday what his punishment would be.
Jurors found Curtis Lavelle Vance guilty Wednesday in an assault on KATV host Anne Pressly at her Little Rock bungalow on Oct. 20, 2008. The attack shattered her face and sent her into a coma. Pressly never regained consciousness and died five days later.
Vance, 29, of Marianna, also was convicted of residential burglary along with rape and theft of property.
Jurors deciding on his penalty could also sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. If the jury cannot settle on a penalty, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza must impose the life sentence.
Prosecution witnesses said DNA evidence linked Vance to Pressly’s death and to a separate rape case in which he has pleaded not guilty. The defense has said police duped Vance into confessing and giving officers a DNA sample to compare with evidence in the case.
A psychiatrist told jurors Thursday that the man convicted of killing television anchorwoman Anne Pressly showed signs of paranoia and compared the man’s brain to a car with bad wiring.
“Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t,” Dr. Shawn Agharkar testified as defense lawyers try to keep Curtis Lavelle Vance out of Arkansas’ execution chamber.
Agharkar, who teaches at Morehouse and Emory universities, said Vance initially didn’t want to meet with him even though the psychiatrist’s testimony could help spare his life.
The doctor said Vance felt the entire community was against him and that the Marianna man had difficulty weighing options.
On cross-examination, deputy prosecutor John Johnson asked whether it was possible that Vance was not paranoid — because after Pressly’s high-profile killing people really were against Vance.
“Even paranoid people have enemies,” Agharkar acknowledged.
During the penalty phase that began Wednesday, Pressly’s mother, Patti Cannady, said that after the death of her only child she ripped up many family photos because she didn’t have anyone to give them to.
“Oh, Lord Jesus, how I wish it were me and not Anne,” Cannady said.
A lawyer for the state Department of Human Services read from agency documents that revealed a troubled youth for Vance. One of Vance’s aunts also testified that Vance’s mother had been addicted to crack and lived for a time in a Memphis homeless shelter after asking her mother to raise her children.
As Vance left the courthouse, family members shouted “Love ya, Lavelle!” and he said “Love you!”
Then he shouted, “It’s a corrupted system!”