CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – In a trial that revealed the lives of elite athletes at a top-notch school, a former University of Virginia lacrosse player faces 26 years in prison for the beating death of his former girlfriend amid a swirl of betrayal, distrust, anger and a culture of drinking.

The prosecutor who meticulously and methodically constructed the case against George Huguely V in the May 3, 2010, beating death of Yeardley Love spoke glumly late Wednesday about a trial that put on display a much-diminished athlete and the horrific injuries he inflicted upon the young woman he professed to love. It played out before two families shattered by the experience.

“There’s nothing to make good the terrible tragedy done to the Love family,” prosecutor Dave Chapman said under an umbrellacourthouse saw his remorse during various times during the trial.”

The verdict was returned to a somber courtroom. Huguely stood ramrod straight in an ill-fitting jacket, flanked by his attorneys, and appeared stoic as the verdict was read. Some sobs could be heard among the Love and Huguely families.

The jury of seven men and five women considered testimony from nearly 60 witnesses over nine days.

They had to decide whether Huguely battered Love to death in a jealous outburst or if his intent to talk with her spiraled out of control and she died accidentally. They also heard suggestions that her own drinking and a prescription drug used for attention deficit disorder could have contributed to her death.

Huguely killed Love, a U.Va. women’s lacrosse player from suburban Baltimore, after a