“Every vortex of pain and suffering reverts back to Jesse Matthew, who has caused this and the repercussions of this”, Gil Harrington said.
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The court hearing is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. Matthew was eventually arrested in Texas and charged with Graham’s murder.
Matthew is charged with capital murder for the death of 18-year-old Hannah Graham previous year, and the first-degree murder of 20-year-old Morgan Harrington in 2009. But whatever happens there, he now looks set to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Hannah Graham’s parents, and Morgan Harrington’s mother, Gil Harrington, attended Friday’s sentencing. Judge Cheryl V. Higgins denied two motions by Matthew’s attorneys in the Graham case. That information is necessary to determine whether the state followed jury selection procedures required by law, they said. He faces a possible death sentence there. Higgins did approve a motion by Matthew’s attorneys to allow them to file motions under temporary seal in order to prevent potential witnesses from being subjected to intense media scrutiny prior to hearings before the trial.
He will go on trial for Harrington’s death in October 2016.
The prosecutor calls her a hero, without whom the case could not have been prosecuted. After police named Matthew as a person of interest in Graham’s disappearance, he fled and was later apprehended on a beach in Texas.
DNA evidence collected from Matthew during the investigation into Ms Graham’s disappearance led to him being linked to the crime.
Matthew declined to give a statement.
The Friday decision was delivered by a judge following an Alford plea entered by Matthew, who plead guilty in the face of overwhelming incriminating evidence against him while maintaining his innocence.
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“If indeed this man was ever raped, then of all people it is he who should be loath to rape someone else”, Mr Morrogh said.
