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State Charges Jesse Matthew for Hannah Graham’s Murder
The 2014 disappearance and murder of second-year University of Virginia student, Hannah Graham, shocked the residents in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The 18-year-old went missing on September 13, 2014, after moving between parties alone and texting a friend saying she was lost. Police tracked some of Hannah’s movements using surveillance footage and found a tape where she was seen walking with a man, later identified as Jesse Matthew Jr, a hospital worker, who was then arrested on suspicion of kidnapping Graham. Police launched an aggressive manhunt searching for the teen; after five weeks Graham’s remains were unearthed in a rural area just 12 miles from UVA’s campus.
COMING UP: Update on slain UVA student Hannah Graham. Watch live here: pic.twitter.com/3EoYZ3aA6s
— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 10, 2015
Matthew, 33, who has been held by police since September 2014 in connection with Graham’s disappearance, has now been charged with first-degree murder and abduction with the intent to defile. Albemarle County Police Chief Steve Sellers announced at a press conference Tuesday that Matthew was served four indictments Monday afternoon. Besides the murder and abduction charge, Matthew was also indicted on reckless driving counts.
He is scheduled to make his first appearance in Albemarle Circuit Court for the abduction and murder charges on February 18 by video from Fairfax. Matthew is currently jailed there in connection with a 2005 rape and attempted murder he’s been charged with. He will remain behind bars in Fairfax until his trial in March.
Jesse Matthew charged with murder in Hannah Graham case; won’t face death penalty http://t.co/gyCXUSRRbCpic.twitter.com/6Jg4mC5YEV
— The Virginian-Pilot (@PilotNews) February 10, 2015
In addition, he has also been forensically linked to the death of Virginia Tech University student Morgan Harrington, who disappeared after leaving a Charlottesville concert in October 2009. Harrington’s body was discovered in 2010.
Matthew faces a possibility of five life sentences if convicted in both Fairfax and Albemarle counties, but surprisingly, not the death penalty. Had Matthew been indicted on a capital murder charge that wouldn’t have been the case.
Why did prosecutors choose not to file any capital murder charges? Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford told CBS reporters:
The decision on how to charge in a specific case is very difficult and often times there are many considerations that going in to charging decisions. I’m not going to discuss the specific facts and circumstances that led to this consideration for ethical reasons, however understand that a great deal of serious thought went into this determination, including the impact on the community, the Grahams and the need to provide Mr. Matthew with a fair trial.
Matthew exhibited a pattern of hurting college-aged girls. In 2002 he was the main suspect in a campus rape investigation while attending Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, but no charges were filed.
It didn’t stop there, because in 2003, Matthew was forced to leave the Christopher Newport University football team he played on shortly after a report of an on-campus sexual assault.
That makes a grand total of five cases where Matthew has been accused of sexual assault. Even scarier, there could be more victims. As someone working in the healthcare field–he worked in a hospital–Matthew could have had the opportunity to victimize countless others that he “cared” for. This man’s horrific crime spree has shone a light on the importance of reporting campus sexual assaults. Had these universities taken the previous accusations against him more seriously, Graham and Harrington may have still been alive.
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