FILE - In this Nov. 14, 2014, file photo, Jesse Matthew Jr. looks toward the gallery while appearing in court in Fairfax, Va. Matthew, accused of abducting and killing University of Virginia student Hannah Graham has been charged with capital murder and a prosecutor said Tuesday, May 5, 2015, she will seek the death penalty if the case goes to trial. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via AP, Pool, File)
FILE – In this Nov. 14, 2014, file photo, Jesse Matthew Jr. looks toward the gallery while appearing in court in Fairfax, Va. Matthew, accused of abducting and killing University of Virginia student Hannah Graham has been charged with capital murder and a prosecutor said Tuesday, May 5, 2015, she will seek the death penalty if the case goes to trial. (Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post via AP, Pool, File)
The man accused of abducting and killing a University of Virginia student has been charged with capital murder and a prosecutor said Tuesday she will seek the death penalty if the case goes to trial, the NY Post reports.
The indictment accusing Jesse L. Matthew Jr. of capital murder in the death of Hannah Graham is based on new forensic evidence, Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford told reporters after a hearing in which new defense attorneys with experience in death penalty cases were appointed. She declined to elaborate on the evidence.
Matthew, a former hospital worker and taxi driver, already was charged with first-degree murder and abduction with intent to defile and is being held without bond.
Shackled and handcuffed, Matthew showed no expression at Tuesday’s hearing. He had been served the new indictment earlier in the day, Lunsford said.
A previous report claims that Jesse Matthew was also questioned in the disappearance of another girl in 2002, and now police is claiming that “forensic evidence” belonging to Jesse Matthew matched evidence collected during an investigation of another Virginia Tech student who disappeared in 2009.
Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, 20, disappeared in October 2009. Her remains were found in January 2010 on a farm in Albemarle County, Virginia.
Police in Charlottesville, Virginia, have charged Matthew, 32, in the disappearance of Graham, who was last seen on Sept. 13 with Matthew. The case has shaken the college town in central Virginia and drawn national attention.
The station said the sources did not detail the forensic evidence, but said it showed that Harrington had contact with Matthew the night she disappeared outside the University of Virginia’s basketball arena in Charlottesville in October 2009.
In a statement emailed to Reuters, Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said Matthew’s arrest last week “provided a significant break in this (Harrington’s) case with a new forensic link for state police investigators to pursue.”
According to reports by CNN, Jesse Matthew, a suspect in the disappearance of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, was questioned in connection with an alleged sexual assault nearly 12 years ago, authorities said Thursday.
However, no charges were filed because the woman didn’t want to go forward with the case and investigators determined there wasn’t enough evidence to arrest Matthew, said Michael Doucette, the commonwealth’s attorney for Lynchburg, Virginia.
According to a statement from Lynchburg police, a woman reported she was raped on the campus of Liberty University on October 17, 2002.
Matthew told authorities that the woman consented, Doucette said, adding that there were no witnesses.
On Thursday, Matthew was sitting in a Texas jail cell, waiting for Virginia authorities to pick him up and take him back to Charlottesville, where he has been sought in the Graham case on suspicion of abduction with the intent to defile.
Jesse Matthew was on the run since Saturday when he initially turned himself into police, then changed his mind and disappeared. After failing to locate Matthew over the last few days, police issued a felony arrest warrant on him and today, he was arrested.
The 32-year-old Matthew is being accused of kidnapping 18-year-old Hannah Graham, who was last seen with Jesse in the early morning hours of September 13th. Witnesses say they saw Jesse and Hannah together, going into a restaurant where Jesse purchased drinks. They left the restaurant and Hannah was not seen or heard from since.
The Charlottesville Virginia Police Chief Tim Longo, announced on Tuesday that Jesse Matthew is now wanted on a felony charge. Matthew, a patient technician in the operating room at the University of Virginia Medical Center, is now wanted on an abduction charge in addition to the two other reckless driving charges he received on Monday.
“We reached that point where the Commonwealth felt we had sufficient probable cause to seek an arrest warrant,” Longo said.
The police Chief is referring to the disappearance of University student, Hannah Graham. According to multiple eye witnesses, Jesse Matthew was the last person seen with the 18-year-old Graham in the early morning of September 13th. After bringing Hannah to the Tempo Restaurant for drinks, the two left the restaurant and Hannah has not been seen since then.
After he was identified as a person of interest wanted for questioning in Hannah’s disappearance, Matthew turned himself into police on Saturday and requested a lawyer before police had a chance to question him. He was appointed a lawyer and then left the precinct, speeding off in his car with police following. The police chief said that police ended the chase due to safety concerns for other pedestrians. Jesse has not been seen since.
Matthew is a 32-year-old, 6ft 2 inches black man with dreadlocks and weighs 270 pounds. According to the wanted poster which has since been updated to reflect the abduction charge, Jesse was last seen in possession of his sister’s 1997 light blue Nissan Sentra with a Virginia tag of VAC4575.
There is a reward for Jesse’s capture. He has associates in Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington D.C. If you have any information about Jesse Leroy Matthews, you are asked to contact the Charlottesvile Police Department at 434-970-3280 or call Crime Stoppers at 434-977-4000
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