Accused Hannah Graham abductor Jesse Matthew has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault and attempted murder charges in a 2005 Fairfax attack, and will face an 8-day trial there March 9, according to news reports from the Daily Progress and Richmond’s NBC12.
Matthew, 32, made the plea in Fairfax County Circuit Court Friday morning. He was indicted there in October on charges of attempted capital murder, abduction, and sexual penetration with an object in the the September 24, 2005 assault on a 26-year-old woman. She was grabbed while walking home to her apartment complex and dragged to a nearby grassy area, beaten, choked, and sexually assaulted, according to news reports on the attack, but her assailant was scared off by a passerby.
Court documents in the case have revealed that DNA from under the Fairfax victim’s fingernails matches Matthew.
In 2010 police announced that DNA from the then-unidentified Fairfax assailant was linked to a found T-shirt belonging to Morgan Harrington, a Virginia Tech student who went missing after an October 2009 concert at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville. Harrington’s remains were discovered in early 2010 on a farm a few miles south of Charlottesville.
Police have said Harrington’s case is tied by a “forensic link” to that of Hannah Graham, who disappeared in September. Matthew was charged in her abduction and arrested after fleeing the area. Graham’s remains were found on a vacant property off Old Lynchburg Road in October. Matthew is set to appear in a Charlottesville court on the abduction charge December 4. Prosecutors have indicated further charges are coming in the Graham case.
Even in the face of the Fairfax case’s strong evidence, a not guilty plea is not surprising, said Charlottesville attorney David Heilberg, who is not involved in Matthew’s defense.
“They’re still negotiating, and there’s nothing to negotiate when you plead guilty,” he said. The Fairfax charges could result in a very long jail sentence, he pointed out, and “sometimes when there’s a lot at stake, like a life sentence, you have nothing to lose going to trial.”
And everyone in the case—prosecutors here in Charlottesville and Albemarle, and Matthew’s attorneys in Fairfax and locally—may well be waiting for more evidence, Heilberg said. Bringing a murder case against Matthew here, either in the Graham or Harrington cases, could still prove difficult.
“Unless you can tie [Matthew’s] DNA to either of the bodies found in Albemarle, it will still be a hard case without some circumstantial evidence,” he said. Maybe prosecutors already have that evidence—but considering the intense media scrutiny here, he said, it’s no surprise they’re keeping quiet.
“Until we know a whole lot more in Charlottesville or Albemarle, there isn’t much to go on,” Heilberg said.