An Albemarle County judge sentenced Matthew to four consecutive life terms Wednesday afternoon, the maximum penalty for each offense.
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He is already serving three life terms for a 2005 sexual assault in northern Virginia.
Ms Graham, an 18-year-old University of Virginia student, was last seen in Charlottesville’s downtown pedestrian mall in September 2014.
“He had me express in court how terribly sorry he is for everything that’s happened here”, said Matthew’s attorney, Doug Ramseur.
(CNN) – Jesse Matthew Jr., the former cabdriver accused of killing two Virginia college students, has pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal, prosecutors said Wednesday.
His client showed no expression during the hearing in Albemarle County Circuit Court here. Because of the sexual assault charge, Matthew was required to provide a DNA sample.
The moment was the beginning of Matthew’s abduction and murder of the 18-year-old University of Virginia sophomore, whose disappearance touched off a massive search and made headlines across the country.
Two remarkably similar murder cases that amplified concerns about campus safety are expected to end when a Virginia man enters a plea deal that will spare him a possible death sentence. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article. “The overwhelming support, tips, volunteerism and advocacy demonstrated by the public, the Harrington family and the Graham family during the course of this case have been instrumental in progressing the investigation and achieving a just resolution”.
Morgan Harrington’s mother thanked the community, including police and the media for keeping her story in the spotlight. But those cases were dropped when the women declined to press charges.
Harrington, 20, disappeared after leaving a Metallica concert in Charlottesville in October 2009, police have said. “So the why of it, will never be answered”, said Gil Harrington, Morgan Harrington’s mother.
In Harrington’s death, hair from Matthew’s dog was found on the t-shirt Morgan was wearing when she vanished.
In exchange for pleading guilty, Matthew will receive a total of four life sentence, one for each charge. “That process has been successfully completed today”, she said. Graham was recorded on surveillance video walking unsteadily and sometimes running past a service station and a restaurant, and she texted a friend that she was lost.
A spokesman for Matthew’s family apologized to the Harrington and Graham families in a statement read outside the courthouse.
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Matthew, 34, became a person of interest in Graham’s disappearance and was ultimately arrested in Texas. He was charged and his cheek was swabbed for a DNA sample. In parallel, forensic evidence in the Fairfax County case linked Matthew to the murder of Morgan Harrington, a 20-year-old Virginia Tech student who disappeared while attending a concert in Charlottesville in October, 2009.
