Matthew is charged with capital murder for the death of 18-year-old Hannah Graham a year ago, and the first-degree murder of 20-year-old Morgan Harrington in 2009.
Advertisement
It goes on to say, that “despite all of this, Mr. Matthew became a well-recognized athlete in his community, graduated high school, attended college, and has consistently maintained employment in order to provide for himself and his family” and that he has “sustained lifelong friendships”. Matthew, a former hospital worker and taxi driver, also has been accused of raping students in 2002 and 2003 at Liberty University and Christopher Newport University, where he had played football, but those cases were dropped when the women declined to press charges. The judge ordered the sentences to be served consecutively.
The families of Morgan Harrington and Hannah Graham are in the courtroom, WNEW’s Cameron Thompson reports.
Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh asked for a maximum of three life sentences, and a minimum of 45 years.
The prosecutor calls her a hero, without whom the case could not have been prosecuted. He faces a possible death sentence there.
His trial in the Graham case is set for July. A DNA sample collected after he was taken into custody connected him to a 2005 sexual assault in Fairfax County, according to authorities. Matthew was eventually arrested in Texas and charged with Graham’s murder.
Both Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington were found dead in the Charlottesville area after going missing.
Detectives said they have long known there was a connection between the murders of Harrington and Graham, but it wasn’t until June that Matthew was convicted of attempted capital murder and sex crimes against a different Fairfax County woman in 2005.
Advertisement
“There are no winners here today”.
