Tag: Hannah Graham

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Judge denies Jesse Matthew’s request for secret hearing

Jesse Matthew's attorneys Michael Hemenway and Doug Ramseur wait for their case to be called at Albemarle Circuit Court. Staff photo

Attorneys for Jesse Matthew, who is accused of capital murder in the death of UVA student Hannah Graham, asked in court October 7 for a separate judge to hear their request for experts without the prosecution’s presence. Even naming the expert or the broad area of expertise in open court would “compromise” Matthew’s trial strategy, said defense attorney Doug Ramseur.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford opposed the motion and said there needed to be more information on why the defense needed confidentiality. “I don’t get to know what the expert says until Mr. Ramseur reveals it in court,” she said.

Ramseur made a reference to convicted girlfriend-killer George Huguely when he said, “If this were a former UVA lacrosse player, we wouldn’t be in this position to have to ask the court. It’s only because Mr. Matthew is poor and indigent, it’s only because you’re poor that we have to disclose information.”

Judge Cheryl Higgins was unswayed and denied the defense motion.

Lunsford also asked the court to order that any motions for a change of venue be filed before March 2. Higgins agreed, and said if that happened, hotels would have to be arranged for everyone involved for the three-week trial now scheduled for July 5, 2016. “I don’t want to leave it to the last minute,” said the judge.

And given that the defense has subpoenaed 11 media organizations, including C-VILLE Weekly, and asked for news reports and documents related to coverage of Graham, whose disappearance September 13, 2014, was a national news story, suggests a motion for change of venue could be forthcoming.

Matthew was sentenced to three life sentences October 2 for the 2005 brutal assault of a woman in Fairfax. He’s also charged in the murder of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington.

 

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Motions in Jesse Matthew trial to be filed under seal

Jesse Matthew was given three life sentences on October 2 for attempted capital murder, abduction with intent to defile and sexual penetration with an object of a Fairfax woman in 2006. Staff photo/mugshot Charlottesville Police

At a previous motions hearing, Judge Cheryl Higgins allowed police to unshackle Jesse Matthew’s belly chain, freeing his hands to only handcuff restraints. Nonetheless, in a September 30 hearing, Matthew appeared, once again, with handcuffs attached to his belly chain, making it difficult for him to raise his right hand when he waived his rights to a speedy trial for charges of the murder of Morgan Harrington.

The trial was set for October 2016, just three months after Matthew will face capital charges for the abduction and slaying of UVA student Hannah Graham.

The defense had asked Higgins to recuse herself in the Graham case because she has a daughter who is a UVA student. Judge Higgins disclosed in the Harrington portion of the hearing that her second daughter goes to Virginia Tech, where Harrington was also a student.

Higgins also heard motions by defense attorney Doug Ramseur and denied all but one, allowing the defense to file motions under seal, giving the public no access to the motions until the time of the motions hearing. The commonwealth’s responses will be kept under seal, as well.

“The reporters who are covering this are certainly invested,” Ramseur said, adding that every motion he files gets reported and it could affect Matthew’s right to a fair trial. He also stated that motions potentially involving the names of witnesses raised serious concerns because he does not want the media to contact witnesses before the trial.

Higgins denied the defense’s’ request for Matthew to undergo a prison violence risk assessment by a professional, as well as the request for all grand jury information such as identities and addresses, and selection processes for the grand jury over the past four years.

After the motions hearing and scheduling for the Morgan Harrington trial, Gil Harrington, her mother, said she approached Matthew’s mother, offered her condolences and shook her hand.

“It’s very surreal to be here as many times as we’ve been here,” Harrington said. “You become habituated to the obscenity of it.”

Matthew is scheduled to be sentenced in Fairfax on October 2 for a 2005 sexual assault of which he is also convicted.

“We’ll obviously be interested in what happens,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford after the September 30 hearing, “but that’s a separate case in a separate jurisdiction.”

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Unusual motion filed in Jesse Matthew case

Commonwealth's Attorney Denise Lunsford requests for a partial denial of the motion for Jesse Matthew to appear unshackled and in his own clothes in public. Photo: Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The defense for Jesse Matthew Jr., now on trial for the murder of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, filed three motions to the Albemarle Circuit Court September 8. While two of the three motions are frequently seen in cases where the death penalty is sought, the defense’s third is a rarity.

Graham went missing a year ago on September 13, after being last seen with Matthew. Her body was discovered more than a month later in North Garden, and Matthew faces capital murder charges in Albemarle County.

His defense, in addition to requesting that Judge Cheryl Higgins be removed from any rulings related to search warrants and requesting a prison violence risk assessment, filed a motion requesting the identities and addresses of members of the grand jury for the past four years.

C-VILLE’s legal expert David Heilberg says of the unusual motion, “I’ve not seen it in any kind of case, not even a death case until now.” Heilberg adds that while there are case laws preventing racial discrimination for the selection of a regular jury, these laws do not apply to the grand jury.

“We don’t know what the constitutional procedures are [for the grand jury],” Heilberg says. “The laws are very flexible. … They seem to be designed to get indictments.”

Heilberg suggests that if this weren’t a capital case, only a wealthy defense would pursue the same motion.

“It’s an attempt to slow the machinery of death,” he notes. “It’s intended to slow or stop the death process or to create leverage to negotiate. That’s really what it’s aimed at.”

If the motion proves unconstitutional practices in the grand jury selection process, Heilberg says it would likely only result in a delay in Matthew’s case.

“I think all that could happen is that they would try to constitute the grand jury in a different way and then they would reindict him,” Heilberg explains. “He’s not going anywhere at this point.”