LITTLE ROCK - The man accused of killing a popular Arkansas television personality arrived at a Pulaski County courtroom Monday for a trial on rape and capital murder charges.
Curtis Lavelle Vance has pleaded not guilty to killing KATV anchorwoman Anne Pressly at her home in Little Rock last year. Court officials have said jury selection in the high-profile case could take two or three days.
Pressly never regained consciousness after the Oct. 20, 2008 attack. Prosecutors hope DNA evidence will do the talking for her.
The state plans to use DNA collected at Pressly's home as well as taped confessions from Vance. If convicted, he faces life in prison or the death penalty.
Vance's defense lawyers claim police coerced Vance into giving up a DNA sample in an interview before his arrest and Vance has claimed that "police trickery" confused him into giving up the samples and the confessions.
Police said Vance picked Pressly's house at random and left her gravely injured after she fought back when he raped her. She died five days later.
DNA collected at Pressly's home later matched samples taken from a rape in Marianna, Vance's hometown, and detectives focused on him after he had been seen loitering around burglarized homes. Vance has pleaded not guilty to a rape charge in the Marianna case.
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