Midtown Blogger/Manhattan Valley Follies: Another Highly Publicized Trial Comes to a New Point- Associated Press

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Another Highly Publicized Trial Comes to a New Point- Associated Press

Jesse Matthew convicted in 2005 Virginia sex assault

The Associated Press - By By MATTHEW BARAKAT - Associated Press

20 minutes ago

FILE - In this Nov. 14, 2014 file photo Jesse Matthew Jr. looks toward the gallery while appearing in court in Fairfax, Va. A woman who authorities say was sexually assaulted by the same man charged with killing a University of Virginia student came face to face with her alleged attacker in a Fairfax courtroom Thursday. The encounter was brief, and the woman's testimony was focused on a narrow legal question, though she did testify that his face looked familiar. But it provided a preview of the courtroom drama expected next week, when a jury trial begins for 33-year-old Jesse Matthew. (AP Photo/The Washington Post, Bill O'Leary, Pool, File)

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — Jesse Matthew pleaded guilty Wednesday without acknowledging he committed a crime, entering an Alford plea on charges that he attacked and molested a woman in Virginia in 2005.

The plea in the decade-old assault came midtrial, after three days of testimony that included the victim's harrowing account of fighting to prevent her assailant from raping her and DNA fingernail evidence from that struggle.

With the plea, Matthew acknowledged that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him without directly admitting to any crime.

Matthew faces up to life in prison, but another case looms: The 33-year-old Charlottesville man is charged in a separate case with the abduction and killing last year of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham. Prosecutors there are seeking the death penalty.

The Alford plea in the Fairfax sex-assault case came after prosecutors rested their case and Matthew's public defenders tried to get the judge to toss the case out of court. They argued that the DNA could have been inadvertently transferred by coming into contact with a common surface, and pointed out that nobody, including the victim, had been able to identify Matthew as being in the area at the time of the crime.

But Judge David Schell described the evidence against Matthew as overwhelming. Schell accepted the plea on all three charges: attempted capital murder, abduction with intent to defile and sexual assault.

He set an Oct. 2 sentencing date. At a hearing next week, the victim, who flew back from India, can give victim-impact testimony.

"She wants to tell the judge how this harmed her, even to this day," Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Morrogh said. The Associated Press generally does not identify sexual assault victims.

2015 The Associated Press

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