Tag: Jesse Matthew

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In brief: PrezFest, Monticello High news, and more

Former President Bill Clinton closed out the Miller Center's PrezFest last week at UVA. Courtesy Miller Center

Presidential address

Following a brief introduction by UVA President Jim Ryan—where Ryan mentioned he’d gotten food poisoning from the White House the first time he met Bill Clinton—the former leader of the free world then took the lectern in Old Cabell Hall to close out the Miller Center of Public Affairs’ first-ever PrezFest, aka Presidential Ideas Festival.

A few lines caught our attention during Clinton’s lengthy address on the role of the presidency. Whether they’re shots at Donald Trump, or generally just good advice for any commander in chief, we’ll never know.

  • Says Clinton, “I think the best presidents have sought to define ‘We the people’ in a way that broadens both the idea and the reality of who counts in this country.”
  • On those who have already served: “So far, they’ve had enough humility to know that no one is right all the time and power must be exercised with some care.”
  • On reputations: “Look, we can all act pious…everybody that’s ever been in politics who wanted to make change has had to feed the beast.”
  • On President Thomas Jefferson: “When he thought of slavery, he trembled to think that God is just, but he didn’t tremble enough to go sign the paper freeing all the slaves.”
  • On the fear that if President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, they’d take everyone’s jobs: “Sound familiar?”
  • On immigration: “There shouldn’t be a Republican or Democratic way to process people at the border.”
  • On being investigated: “I used to have fun with the people that were investigating me. I’d rag ’em and make fun of ’em and try to keep everybody in a pretty good mood.”
  • On significance: “[The recently photographed black hole] is so big, and it’s magnetic pull is so great, that if our entire solar system went by close enough, it would be sucked in and disintegrated immediately into a pile of dirt that could fit in a thimble. Now think of that. If that’s true, it’s not so important to be on Mount Rushmore, is it? But it does not make the life of any public servant less significant. It makes the trappings, the image, the b.s. less significant.”
  • On division: “We should not be despairing if we’re worried about America dividing. …There have never been permanent gains or permanent losses in human affairs, and we’ve got a lot of hay in the barn. We just need to saddle up.”
  • Bonus quote, on August 12, 2017, when then-Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe told white supremacists and neo-Nazis to get out of the state and not come back, while Trump called them very fine people: “The governor of Virginia, on that day, was my president.”

Quote of the week

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the next guy’s like: ‘You know, I still have a slave. He’s been in our family for years. Sorry.’”—Comedian Wanda Sykes, on Governor Ralph Northam’s apparent inability to remember if he was in the blackface photo in his medical school yearbook.

In brief

National champs

The UVA men’s lacrosse team took down defending champs Yale May 27 to secure its first NCAA championship since 2011. The No. 3-seed Cavs outscored the No. 5-seed Bulldogs 13-9 in Philadelphia, and will bring home Virginia lacrosse’s sixth national championship.

DMB death

When Jasen Smith went to find his wife’s misplaced souvenir T-shirt at a Dave Matthews Band concert in St. Louis, she says he never returned. She then found him unconscious, with blood dripping from his ear, after suffering a skull fracture from blunt force trauma to the back of his head. He died the next day, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The mysterious death is still under investigation.

Dramatic

Madeline Michel

Monticello High drama teacher Madeline Michel will receive a special Tony for excellence in theater education at the awards show June 9 in New York. The award includes a $10,000 gift for the school’s theater program.

Inappropriate

Former Monticello High coach George “Trae” Payne III will serve 30 days of a five-year sentence for sending a 17-year-old female student three inappropriate photos on Snapchat in 2018. Payne entered an Alford plea and said the teen did not deserve to be in the middle of his depression, the Progress reports.

The Cooch is back

Former AG Ken Cuccinelli Zuma Press

Former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli, best known locally for demanding documents from UVA climate researcher Michael Mann in 2010, has been tapped by President Trump to head U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The Washington Post reports Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opposes the nomination of the conservative firebrand.

Emmy winners

UVA student journalists Yahya Abou-Ghazala and Robby Keough won the school’s first Student Emmy Award for video they created as third years covering the March for Our LIves student walkout March 14, 2018, a month after 17 students were mowed down in Parkland, Florida.

*Shrugs*

After Governor Ralph Northam’s blackface scandal, Eastern Virginia Medical School launched an independent investigation to determine whether he appeared as the man in blackface, Ku Klux Klan robes, or not at all, in the now-infamous photo on his 1984 yearbook page. Its conclusion: They don’t know. Also on the list of things investigators couldn’t determine is how the picture was ever printed in the first place.

Killer’s cancer

The man serving four life sentences for abducting and murdering UVA student Hannah Graham and Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington now has stage four colon cancer.

Monticello High grad Jesse Matthew was transferred from Red Onion State Prison, a supermax facility in Wise County, to Waverly’s Sussex I State Prison last week to receive treatment.

“This is justice and perhaps karma,” said Harrington’s mother, Gil Harrington, to a reporter from Richmond’s CBS 6.

Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci says under the terms of Matthew’s 2016 plea agreement, he is not eligible for release or parole.

In a rare, post-diagnosis interview with the same Richmond channel, a reporter asked the convicted killer whether he was sorry for the 2009 and 2014 murders.

Said Matthew, “I don’t think I can answer that question right now truthfully.”

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‘Bittersweet’ bills: Governor signs legislation that could save the next girl

John and Sue Graham were in Charlottesville for Governor Ralph Northam’s signing of legislation that could have saved their daughter’s life. Eze Amos

The parents of two young women who were murdered here were among those in the dignitary-filled room June 21 at Charlottesville’s Central Library, where Governor Ralph Northam signed legislation expanding the collection of DNA for misdemeanor crimes that, had it previously been in effect, could have saved UVA student Hannah Graham and Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington.

Many there remembered the frantic search for Graham in 2014 as the school year began, and despite hundreds of searchers, it was five weeks before her body was found. Morgan Harrington disappeared in October 2009, while here for a Metallica concert. Her body was found three months later in the same part of Albemarle County as Graham’s, an area known to their killer, Jesse Matthew.

Northam’s daughter was at UVA at the same time as Graham. “These tragedies are very difficult,” he said. “We can only imagine.”

But, said the governor, “We can make changes.”

The legislation was spearheaded by Albemarle Sheriff Chip Harding, who’s long been a proponent of DNA databanks, and who originally prodded the state to fund its database in the ’90s. While everyone convicted of a felony goes into the database, Harding has pushed for collection of DNA for misdemeanor convictions, and says that 70 percent of first-time violent felons had a previous misdemeanor conviction.

“Three years ago, [Morgan’s mother] Gil Harrington worked with me and we got nine misdemeanors added, including exposing yourself, which is what Jesse Matthews Sr. did,” says Harding. Familial DNA would have linked to his son, who was convicted of a brutal 2005 attack in Fairfax, “and Morgan Harrington would never have been killed.”

In 2017, the Grahams joined Harding to urge the Virginia Crime Commission to study misdemeanors linked to violent felonies, and it identified seven more. “Of those, we only got funding for two—trespassing and domestic assault,” says Harding. Jesse Matthew was convicted of trespassing in 2010, and had his DNA been collected, “it would have prevented Hannah Graham’s death,” says the sheriff.

Brian Moran, Virginia secretary of public safety, noted, “DNA can convict the guilty, and maybe even more importantly, it can exonerate the innocent.”

The governor also signed a bill that requires fingerprints for those arrested for trespassing and disorderly conduct.

Delegate David Toscano, Governor Ralph Northam, Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran and Delegate Rob Bell were here for the signing of legislation to collect DNA for trespassing and assault. Eze Amos

Northam called the bipartisan legislation an example of the Virginia way: “The Virginia way is working together.” House Democratic Leader David Toscano carried the bills, which got support from Republican Delegate Rob Bell, who was present and who chairs the Courts of Justice committee. Republican state Senator Mark Obenshain carried a similar version in the Senate.

John and Sue Graham came to Richmond “again and again,” said Toscano.

After the signing, Sue Graham said, “What happened to Hannah won’t happen to another young woman in the same way.”

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Harrington, who founded Help Save the Next Girl. “So many points along the way, this legislation would have stopped Jesse Matthew. It’s too late for Morgan.”

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Longo’s legacy: Cameras coming to a mall and cop near you

Surveillance video images helped lead to the arrest of Jesse Matthew, who pleaded guilty last week to murdering UVA student Hannah Graham, after footage showed he was with her the night she disappeared. Tuel Jewelers’ Mary Loose DeViney says she shares images from the store’s video surveillance with the police department but would cease to if she learned the images were being used for something other than police investigations.

Much to the dismay of a local civil libertarian, outgoing Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo will finally get the surveillance cameras on the Downtown Mall he’s long desired.

Hardware estimates fell from their previous high of $300,000, and the police surveillance system nine years in the making has finally won the support of City Council. In a February 16 voice vote, Council asked Longo to seek proposals after he said public cameras might cost less than $74,000.

“This is way less,” said Councilor Kristin Szakos. “It eases a lot of my objections.”

But cost isn’t the end of the objections.

“The key here, and what our City Council should be considering is: How can we protect the rights of citizens?” says John Whitehead, founder of the Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit that wages legal battles to protect civil liberties.

However, because courts routinely rule that there’s no expectation of privacy in public places, Whitehead concedes that cameras are coming—and at a price beyond the $74K in hardware and $1,200 in monthly operating costs.

“People will start being very careful about what they say in public,” says Whitehead, noting that lip-reading software can now decipher the dialogue from silent recordings.

But not everyone shares Whitehead’s concerns. “When you’re in a public space, there is no privacy anymore,” says merchant Joan Fenton, a longtime advocate for the cameras and co-chair of the Downtown Business Association.

Still, Whitehead worries that the ensuing images could be used to blackmail someone or find their way into civil litigation such as divorce proceedings. He also doubts that Charlottesville citizens would remain willing to chalk their anti-government protests on the First Amendment monument under the gaze of a government camera.

“These things,” says Whitehead, “are going to alter our behavior.”

In his recent pitch for 36 cameras perched on light poles spanning the eight blocks between the Omni hotel and the nTelos Wireless Pavilion, Longo tried to assuage such concerns.

“We have no desire or expectation of going in to randomly view images without any specific law enforcement purpose,” Longo said. “We would go to these images in the aftermath of an event in an effort to help us solve an incident that has already occurred.”

There’s little doubt that surveillance cameras led to the capture of Jesse Matthew, the man who pleaded guilty last week to murdering University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, who crossed paths with Matthew on the Downtown Mall in 2014. Those cameras, however, were private.

“I would argue for cameras—private cameras first, public cameras second,” says Mary Loose DeViney, whose store’s video footage helped identify Matthew.

DeViney says her store, Tuel Jewelers, freely feeds low-resolution imagery directly to the police department, but she says she’d cease the flow if she were to learn of improper snooping. She contends that leaving cameras in private hands saves money and provides a useful check on government abuse.

“The devil’s in the details,” says DeViney.

A year ago, Longo, who retires May 1, promised to develop, in consultation with civil rights organizations, policies on the storage and use of the ensuing images. But Whitehead’s Rutherford Institute reports it has not been consulted, and a reporter’s question to Longo about the status of such consultations went unanswered by press time. (Citing time constraints, Longo declined to be interviewed for this story, except by e-mail.)

“I feel comfortable speaking for your next chief”—Longo assured Council on the topic of snooping—“that it would not be a policy consistent with law enforcement best practices.”

While mall cameras move forward, body cameras have already arrived. Just as the push for mall surveillance preceded the Matthew-Graham murder investigation, Longo has told Council that the department’s push for body cameras was already in the works before last year’s spate of taped police shootings of unarmed Americans.

“We have not chosen to go down this path in light of national events,” Longo told Council. “We actually started going down this path because our in-car camera system was manufacturer discontinued, and we couldn’t get it fixed.”

A City Hall official provided a reporter with a five-year contract showing Charlottesville will spend $272,357 for 100 body cameras and related software, hardware, training and storage. Longo told Council the system will be deployed by late spring or early summer.

Whitehead, who has written two books on the expansion of government surveillance, predicts that mall cameras may succeed in invading privacy without actually reducing crime.

“They displace crime to areas where there are no cameras,” says Whitehead. “So if you’re going to be effective in these programs, eventually you’re going to have to have cameras on every street corner.”

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Jesse Matthew pleads guilty, receives four additional life sentences

Jesse Matthew could be seen through an Albemarle County courthouse window on his way to entering a plea agreement for the murders and abductions of Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington. He was given four additional life sentences. Staff photo

 

Convicted murderer Jesse Matthew pleaded guilty to the first degree murders and abductions of both Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington in Albemarle County Circuit Court on March 2. He was given four life sentences—the maximum sentence for each count.

Matthew will avoid the death penalty because Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci nolle prossed his capital murder charge as part of the plea agreement. Tracci explained that the Commonwealth can re-indict Matthew for the capital murder charge if he should violate the terms of the plea agreement.

For the complete statement of facts about the Hannah Graham case, including a timeline of what happened on the night she was abducted, DNA conclusions and evidence gathered at Matthew’s apartment read Hannah Graham Statement of Facts 3-2-16. For the statement of facts about the Morgan Harrington case, read Morgan Harrington Statement of Facts 3-2-16.

Before the hearing, Matthew’s family and friends lined up to hug Harrington’s mother, Gil. Declining to give his own statement during the hearing, Matthew’s attorney said, “He is very sorry.”

Parents of both slain college students spoke about the impact the murders have had on their lives during and after the hearing.

Graham’s mother, Susan Graham, said, “When we imagine the trauma she endured at the hands of Matthew, our hearts break.” Though details of how Matthew abducted and killed each girl were typed up and handed to Judge Cheryl Higgins, they were not read aloud. Matthew’s attorney, Doug Ramseur, said he is unaware whether the parents have yet learned those details.

“Matthew dumped our girl’s body like a bag of trash,” Susan Graham said, adding that her daughter’s lifeless body was picked over by buzzards. Her daughter, an 18-year-old UVA student who disappeared September 13, 2014, was found dead several weeks later in a field off Old Lynchburg Road.

According to the statement of facts released by the county, the crop top Graham was last seen wearing the night of her abduction was found near her skeletal remains, unzipped and inside out. Her jeans were also found nearby, with one leg inside out and holes in the denim that had not been present earlier in the night.

Graham’s father, John, said many people thought his daughter would change the world. “She did change the world, but at a terrible price.”

Two of the life sentences Matthew was given March 2 pertained to Harrington, a 20-year-old Virginia Tech student who was last seen at a Metallica concert at the John Paul Jones Arena on October 17, 2009. Her body was found in a field in January 2010, about five miles from where Graham’s body was found almost five years later.

Harrington’s father, Dan, said he lives in “a world that’s gone gray, flat and devoid of joy,” now that his “beautiful, smart, talented and bright” daughter is gone. “Our family has felt the pain of this loss every second of every day.”

He and his wife, Gil, have built an African school and founded a scholarship in Harrington’s name. They also created the Help Save the Next Girl nonprofit foundation to sensitize young women and girls to predatory dangers.

Ramseur spoke after the sentencing, saying “This is obviously not a day for celebration,” before media fired questions about his client, such as why Matthew didn’t apologize himself and if he ever explained why he murdered two young women. The attorney deflected the questions and said it’s “unfortunate” that, because Matthew won’t have a trial, the public might never hear evidence from the the defense. He did say in an initial statement during the hearing that Matthew decided to plead guilty because he didn’t want a death sentence “hanging over his head.”

Legal expert David Heilberg says most capital murder cases now end in plea bargains, and he expected this as the likely outcome for Matthew.

Now that the death penalty is off the table, Matthew’s four additional life sentences are debatably meaningless, Heilberg says. Last summer, Matthew was given three life sentences for abducting, violently sexually assaulting and attempting to kill a Fairfax woman in 2005.

“You only have one life to serve,” Heilberg adds. “At this point, it can’t get any worse.”
Watch a video of Gil Harrington addressing the public below.

 

 

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Legal expert speaks to Jesse Matthew’s anticipated guilty plea

Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington. Photos courtesy Charlottesville Police Department and Virginia State Police

Jesse Matthew is set to enter a plea deal in the abduction and murder of Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington in Albemarle Circuit Court on March 2.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci issued a letter February 29 stating that although it is anticipated that Matthew will plead guilty and resolve both cases, Tracci’s office will not provide any additional details or comments before the hearing.

Legal expert David Heilberg says most capital murder cases now end in plea bargains, and he expected this as the likely outcome for Matthew and his defense attorneys, Doug Ramseur and Michael Hemenway.

“It would take the death penalty off the table,” which Heilberg says is likely Matthew’s motivation. “At this point, it can’t get any worse.”

Last summer, Matthew was given three life sentences for abducting and sexually assaulting a Fairfax woman in 2005. “You only have one life to serve,” Heilberg adds.

Matthew is accused of capital murder in the death and abduction of Graham, an 18-year-old UVA student who disappeared September 13, 2014, and was found dead several weeks later on Old Lynchburg Road. He has also been indicted by a grand jury for the 2009 murder and abduction of Harrington, a Virginia Tech student, who was last seen at a Metallica concert at the John Paul Jones Arena that October. She was 20 years old at the time.

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Search warrant upheld: Judge denies motion to suppress evidence in Jesse Matthew case

Sue and John Graham leave Albemarle Circuit Court. Staff photo

An attorney for Jesse Matthew called the search warrant for Matthew’s Hessian Hills apartment so broad it amounted to a “fishing expedition” because it didn’t limit what could be considered trace evidence and biological material. At a January 21 hearing, Judge Cheryl Higgins denied the defense motion to suppress evidence collected.

The parents of Hannah Graham sat in court for the three-hour hearing across the room from the man charged with the capital murder of their daughter. They were joined on the second row by Gil Harrington, mother of Morgan Harrington, whose 2009 disappearance led to murder and abduction charges against Matthew.

Defense attorney Doug Ramseur argued that the warrant used in the September 19, 2014, search of Matthew’s apartment was not only too broad, but that some items seized were outside its scope. “This search warrant as written has a number of fatal defects that make it flawed,” said Ramseur.

He listed seven items he felt exhibited “flagrant disregard” for the search warrant and should lead to the suppression of all evidence collected: a Samsung cell phone, two pairs of boxers, a wallet, a cigar butt, a paycheck, khaki shorts and toothbrushes.

Detective Jeremy Carper had no way of knowing the Samsung cell phone he took was the one identified in the warrant as 434-960-5198 and believed to be Matthew’s, said Ramseur. Carper testified the phone was on a table beside a wallet containing Matthew’s ID, and its battery and SIM card had been removed.

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Elliott Casey contended Carper had probable cause to believe it was Matthew’s because it was beside his wallet and had been disabled, and because Matthew had already indicated he wanted to leave town.

Ramseur also took issue with a pair of blue boxers and a pair of green ones taken that were not identified in the search warrant. Carper said another detective asked him to get them to have something a dog could sniff. Ramseur called it “general rummaging” under the guise of trace evidence, and said the detective did not see stains or hairs on the boxers to justify seizing them.

Carper used “unfettered discretion” when he took Matthew’s wallet with a receipt from Blue Light Grill the night Graham went missing, something the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled police may not do, said Ramseur.

The paycheck had a patent, or visible, fingerprint on it, and the search warrant only specified latent prints, said Ramseur. Police should have gotten another warrant if they wanted such prints, he said. Casey said, “A patent print is trace evidence.”

Perhaps the biggest item of contention was a pair of khaki shorts. The search warrant described “long white shorts,” which Matthew was seen wearing in a video with Graham the last night she was seen alive.

“These are not white shorts,” said Ramseur. “These are khaki. No one would confuse them with long white shorts.”

‘The shorts have hair on them,” countered Casey. “They were checked into evidence as white khakis.” As for whether they were long or short, that was “simply a semantic argument,” he said.

Judge Higgins disagreed items taken exceeded the scope of the search warrant, and said there was probable cause they were in connection to an abduction. “A search warrant has to be practical and factual,” she said.

Matthew’s next hearing is March 2, and he’s scheduled for trial July 5.

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Canine expertise: Bloodhound at center of Jesse Matthew hearing

New Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Tracci leaves his first Jesse Matthew hearing with assistant prosecutor Carrene Walker. Staff photo

A judge ruled that police did not make misrepresentations to a magistrate when seeking a search warrant during a hearing that stretched more than nine hours January 11 on a defense motion to suppress evidence in the capital case against Jesse Matthew for the abduction and murder of UVA student Hannah Graham.

Central to Matthew’s objection to the search warrant affidavit was the work of Shaker, a bloodhound from Louisa, whose findings the defense said were inconsistent with statements in the search warrant. The judge granted a Franks hearing, in which a defendant can challenge evidence obtained from a warrant based on false statements or reckless disregard for the truth.

Shaker was brought on the case September 16, 2014, as police frantically sought Graham, who was last seen early September 14 with Matthew. According to Shaker’s handler, former Lousia detective Stuart L. “Buck” Garner, the dog picked up Graham’s scent on Preston Avenue, where videos had placed her at McGrady’s Irish Pub heading east and going past Reid’s Market and the Shell station.

The bloodhound turned right on Fourth Street Northwest and followed that to West Main, headed east again toward the federal courthouse and the Downtown Mall, took Second Street Southwest to Water Street and down to Fourth Street Southeast where the warrant said the scent “terminated,” according to defense attorney Doug Ramseur. That omitted the fact that the canine team came back the next day, said Ramseur, and gives the impression the trail ends with Graham leaving with Matthew. A video from Norcross Station showed an orange car similar to his driving by that location the night Graham went missing.

Ramseur argued that the trail Shaker picked up was substantially different from video sightings of Graham, including one at 12:57am at the Crossings on Fourth and Preston and then at 1:01am on a video at Fellini’s on Second Street Northwest. “The only place the trail was ever corroborated was where it began,” he said.

Police witnesses said there were long periods when they had no idea where Graham was and that Shaker’s tracking of Graham was consistent because of “scent drift,” which over time can spread a scent up to 100 yards, according to Garner, who is no longer with the Louisa Sheriff’s Office. When Ramseur asked for Shaker’s training records, Garner said he destroyed them all “out of frustration the day my dog was terminated from the department.”

Garner and Shaker came back to Fourth Street Southeast on September 17, 2014, and tracked Graham’s scent down East Market Street to Woolen Mills. At a large mulch pile in an industrial area, Shaker found Graham’s scent so strong that it must have come from “fear or adrenaline,” said Garner, interpreting the reaction of Shaker, whom he referred to as his “partner.”

Unclear was how Graham reached the mulch pile 1.5 miles from the Downtown Mall or how she left. Garner told detectives it was possible to pick up her scent in a slow-moving car with the windows open, according to court testimony. Ramseur said Garner previously told him Shaker couldn’t track cars.

A third misrepresentation in the search warrant, said Ramseur, was when Shaker and Garner came back again on September 18, 2014, to Matthew’s Hessian Hills apartment complex. Ramseur said that Garner told him, “Hannah Graham was never present in Mr. Matthew’s apartment,” which Ramseur called “a crucial omission for a probable cause analysis” in the search warrant affidavit.

However, in court, Garner testified that the bloodhound indicated he picked up Graham’s scent by the passenger door of Matthew’s 1998 Chrysler, on asphalt by the passenger door, at a dumpster in the complex, at the entrance to Matthew’s apartment and outside Matthew’s door. “I meant I did not find her trail, but I did find her scent,” Garner explained.

“He told me there was a 60 percent chance she was there,” testified lead investigator Detective Sergeant James Mooney. That was in sharp contrast to a statement Ramseur produced of Garner telling him he never used percentages in characterizing Shaker’s findings.

In explaining her finding that police did not “knowingly and intentionally show a disregard for the truth,” Judge Cheryl Higgins noted that the six-page search warrant affidavit, which Ramseur had called the longest he’d ever seen, was inconsistent if police were trying hide information. And they had it reviewed by then-commonwealth’s attorney Denise Lunsford.

Higgins seemed sympathetic to the haste in which police gathered information. By the time Charlottesville Police obtained a search warrant September 19, 2014, tips was coming in every minute and many investigators had not slept because of a sense that time was crucial. “My decision was go to sleep or try to find Hannah alive,” said Mooney.

Higgins also said she wanted to address for the record whether there was probable cause for the warrant, from which she cited details. The warrant had previously been sealed.

A witness had spotted Graham with a black male wearing a white shirt and shorts—the same attire Matthew was wearing in the Sal’s and Tuel’s videos. The witness saw Matthew put his arm around Graham and told her friend, “She doesn’t know him.” They followed Matthew and Graham to Tempo, and saw Graham pull out her pink cell phone.

According to the warrant, Matthew used his Visa card to buy drinks costing $15.30 at 1:10am, said Higgins.

Another witness at the UVA Medical Center identified Matthew and his orange car, said the judge. The affidavit also noted that when police took his car, Matthew wanted to get paperwork—a passport application—out of it. And he refused to give police his cell phone number.

“The court finds sufficient probable cause even if you remove the canine,” said Higgins, denying the motion.

Monday’s marathon session was the first Matthew hearing for newly elected Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci. He sat at the prosecution table, but assistant commonwealth’s attorneys Elliott Casey and Carrene Walker handled the state’s case.

Matthew is scheduled for trial in July. He’s also been charged with the murder and abduction of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington in 2009. And last summer, he was sentenced to three life sentences for an abduction and sexual assault in 2005 in Fairfax. Matthew’s next hearing is January 21.

Outside the courtroom, attorney Scott Goodman explained the defense’s motion to suppress evidence: “Obviously [police] found something in Jesse Matthew’s apartment they don’t want the jury to hear. The first step is to get it thrown out.”

Updated 10:18am January 12.

Correction January 14: The year of Matthew’s 1998 Chrysler was misidentified in the original story.

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Comings and goings draw more attention than Jesse Matthew

Gil and Dan Harrington drove two hours to be at a five-minute hearing for their daughter's accused murderer, and say they feel "honor bound" to be there. Staff photo

The status hearing for accused murderer Jesse Matthew had the former Monticello High student in court December 17 for what was basically the postponement of scheduling a motion hearing to bring in uncharged crimes during sentencing, should he be convicted of the murder, abduction and capital murder of Hannah Graham in July.

Garnering more attention during the brief hearing in Albemarle Circuit Court was Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford, who hands over the keys to the prosecutor’s office January 1 to Robert Tracci. He was there, and had been in the same court earlier in the day to be sworn in to the job that’s still Lunsford’s for two more weeks.

Before Matthew came into the courtroom, Jon Zug, clerk of court-elect, told Judge Cheryl Higgins that this would be his last appearance before her as assistant commonwealth’s attorney. Higgins came down off the bench and walked in front of it to shake Zug’s hand. “Good luck,” said the jurist.

More somber were the parents of Morgan Harrington, the Virginia Tech student whom Matthew is accused of murdering and abducting in 2009. Gil and Dan Harrington drove two hours from Roanoke to be at the hearing that barely lasted five minutes. Gil Harrington acknowledged the effort put in to be there, however briefly. “We really feel like it’s our duty,” she said. “We are honor bound to be here. It’s part of my covenant with Morgan.”

She noted the difficulty of the holiday season for parents of a dead child. “Maybe this is more of a distraction for us,” she said.

Although Matthew’s DNA was linked to Morgan Harrington during the course of the fall 2014 Hannah Graham investigation, he was not indicted with her death until September 2015, nearly six years after Harrington was last seen alive. “This is a really slow process,” said Gil Harrington.

That Matthew was charged in her daughter’s death has given the Harringtons some “psychic relief,” she said. “We feel more progress toward celebration and joy than in the past.”

After the hearing, Lunsford explained she was providing notice that the commonwealth would seek to use unadjudicated conduct during Matthew’s sentencing, and a motion to hear that would be heard January 11. Although she declined to comment on the behavior, Matthew, 33, has been accused of sexual assault at both Liberty University and at Christopher Newport University, but was never charged.

Lunsford said she wouldn’t take questions about this being her last day because it wasn’t. As for her plans for 2016, she said, “I got a puppy.”

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Jesse Matthew in court for motions hearing

Commonwealth's Attorney Denise Lunsford leaves Albemarle Circuit Court followed by Jesse Matthew's attorneys Michael Hemenway and Doug Ramseur. Staff photo

The Jesse Matthew hearing December 7 was the last court appearance in the charges stemming from the murder and abduction of UVA student Hannah Graham for outgoing Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford, and the man who defeated her in November and will take over the capital case, Robert Tracci, was in the Albemarle courtroom.

Tracci hugged Gil Harrington, mother of slain Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, whom Matthew is also charged with killing. Present, too, was Trina Murphy, great aunt of Nelson teen Alexis Murphy, who disappeared in August 2013.

Judge Cheryl Higgins approved a defense request for a $350-an-hour mental health evaluation by Dr. William Stejskal, who has testified in other high-profile murder cases, most recently in August in Alexandria when he said he’d diagnosed accused serial killer Charles Severance as having a form of schizophrenia.

And in an unusual move, Lunsford objected to the defense withdrawing a motion to exclude evidence and said Matthew’s attorney Doug Ramseur “would rather have this heard when the new commonwealth’s attorney comes into office.”

She also suggested Ramseur wants to withdraw the motion, scheduled to be heard December 17, because a detective who will testify for the prosecution is seriously ill and may not be available, a notion Ramseur rejected.

Ramseur argued that as a death penalty case, it was extremely important to do everything correctly.Motions in the case have been sealed, but when Judge Higgins scheduled the next hearing for January 11, she mentioned that 14 witnesses would be called, which could take a whole day.

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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.