Anne Pressley’s Murder Trial Over/Curtis Vance Found GUILTY
Anne Pressly, Arkansas Anchorwoman was Beaten, Raped, and Murdered Last Year
A jury has found Curtis Vance guilty in the murder and rape of Little Rock, Arkansas anchorwoman Anne Pressly. He was also convicted of burglary and theft of property.
Prosecutors told the jurors in the trial that DNA evidence proved that Vance, 29, was the one who broke into Pressly's home last October and savagely beat and raped her until she was unconscious. After a tremendous fight, Pressly died five days later. The prosecutors also said the DNA evidence linked Vance to another attack, the rape of a school teacher in Marianna, Arkansas, about 100 miles away.
The defense: the police made him confess, because they were under extreme pressure to make an arrest in this case. Really? So DNA means nothing? This is embarrassing. That’s the defense? They can’t come up with anything better than that? This guy should have pleaded guilty and spared this poor family the pain of a trial, but as always, it is someone else’s fault, even the police.
Pressly was a popular morning news anchor in Little Rock. She also had a small part in President Bush biopic movie “W”.
Her parents always called her at 3:00a.m. as a wake up call. On the morning of October 20, 2008, Pressly never answered. After repeated calls, her parents became very worried and her mother rushed to her home where she found the back door wide open, and inside, her daughter was gasping for breath in a pool of blood.
Last year, after this vicious attack, Pressly's mother, Patti Cannady, told NBC, her daughter fought hard for her life, breaking her left hand in the process. "I found my daughter beyond recognition, with every bone in her face broken, her nose broken, her jaw pulverized so badly that the bone had come out of it. I actually thought that her throat had possibly been cut. Her entire skull had numerous fractures from which she suffered a massive stroke."
At the trial, Cannady was among the first witnesses to take the stand. "It was Anne, but she was so swollen and her hair was completely matted with blood, she was beyond recognition," Cannady said. "There was blood on the ceiling. That's how horrific her attack was." During Patty Pressly’s heartwrenching testimony, she stared down at Vance and choked back tears. "It was horrific," she told the jury. "I absolutely could not take the scene in. I could not imagine what I was seeing when I found my daughter."
A nurse who also testified told the court she had never seen anyone so badly wounded who was still alive. Another medical examiner also testified that the front of Pressly’s face was broken “like an egg”.
After the verdicts were read, Pressly's mother, Patti Cannady, raised a hand and said, "Praise God. Praise God." She burst into sobs.
Once the jurors had left, Vance gestured toward the empty jury box, pointed to his eyes and ears and shook his head. Whatever that was suppose to mean…..wow, I am innocent, my DNA is all over the place, but I didn’t do it. Disgusting.
A good friend of Anne Pressly, Jessica Dean, told Good Morning America “It feels like we’ve held our breath over the last year and we were finally able to exhale a little bit.”
Dean described her friend as remarkably funny, smart, and dedicated. Discussing Anne Pressly’s parents, Patty and Guy, she described them as “pillars of strength” through this ordeal. "They have set this example, and I know they have drawn strongly from their faith," Dean said. "When we get into the fetal position and can't do it anymore we look to Patti and Guy."
Another friend of Anne’s, David Bazzel said "Today was justice for Anne," after the verdict. "And it's taken a year to get to it, and I know nobody's more grateful than the parents and all of us as friends." He said the hardest part of the trial was having to listen to an account of the last moments of Pressly's life. "The whole thing was surreal for me," he said. "This was not 'CSI.' This was not a movie. This was our friend that had to go through horrible last minutes of her life, and it's just hard to hear that and to think that anybody could do this to anybody." He said of Vance, "What he did to her, the death penalty is not enough for him."
The jury is now deciding if this monster, Curtis Vance should get life in prison or the death penalty. I pray they put him on death row.
I feel so bad for these parents. What a horrific way to lose a daughter. I hope they find some peace that their daughter’s killer has been found guilty. I also hope the jury comes back quickly with a dealth penalty verdict. I will really be surprised if it is anything different.
Curtis Vance found guilty of rape and murder
Somer Thompson Missing and Now Thought to be Dead
Missing 7 Year Old Child, Somer Thompson
It is looking more and more like this is yet another terrible tragedy. The beautiful 7 year old Florida girl has been missing for 3 days now. Today, police and detectives have announced that they found a body of a small white child. Not even able to tell the public if the body was male or female. Of course, everyone is thinking, it has to be sweet Somer Thompson. Many have first thoughts of ”I hope it is not her”, but then….WHO is it? No matter what, the fact is, a child’s dead body was found among trash in a landfill today.
What is going on in our country? Why does this keep happening? We need changes in our justice system. Predators who steal, rape, and kill our children need to be put away for life! An overwhelming concern is that we keep letting these monsters out and back into our society and around our children. We need to band together and make changes! There is too much violence against young, small, innocent, and defenseless children.
This beautiful little Somer was doing everything right. She was walking home from school with her older sister, her twin brother and other neighborhood kids. According to the other children, during the walk, Somer had a spat with another child and decided to run up ahead and walk alone. She was never seen again. Please pray for this little girl, her family, and her community. This is such a devastating situation.
