Matthew did not give a statement during the hearing, though his lawyer said that Matthew was sorry for what happened.
Advertisement
In Harrington’s death, hair from Matthew’s dog was found on the t-shirt Morgan was wearing when she vanished.
He listened as Hannah Graham’s mother recounted the impact of his actions, looking down as she attacked him for “dumping our lovely girl like a bag of trash to be picked over by buzzards and vultures”. Her remains were found three months later on a nearby farm. She also said she misses snuggling on the couch with her daughter and having tea. “She did change the world, but at a bad price”. We struggle to proceed in a world that has gone gray, flat, and is devoid of joy. “The brutality and intentionality of Morgan’s murder pierces our every day, and will continue to do so until we join her. How could he?” She thanked law enforcement and media for their persistence. CBS-6 reports the Graham and Harrington families support the deal, and they will be making statements as part of it.
Graham, an 18-year-old University of Virginia student, went missing in September 2014.
Matthew ran after police named him as a person of interest Graham’s disappearance.
Harrington was missing for more than 100 days following an October 17, 2009 Metallica concert at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville. He robbed Morgan of her future, her potential to educate others, to be married, have children and to grow old. “We hope that today’s court appearance, in which Jesse Matthew Jr. pleaded guilty in the cases involving Hannah and Morgan, will bring some sense of closure and peace to their families and friends and to the many communities affected by these heartbreaking events”.
Prosecutors had said they planned to seek the death penalty if the Graham case went to trial.
In the sentencing for that case last October, Matthew’s family had asked the judge for leniency. He was given four life sentences-the maximum sentence for each count. “That’s the end of it”, said NBC12 legal expert Steve Benjamin. In that case, Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh presented evidence showing that DNA recovered from the victim’s fingernail was highly likely to belong to Matthew. After an intensive search, her remains were found several miles away from where Harrington had been left.
Along the way, investigators solved a 2005 rape case and used DNA evidence to tie all three cases to Jesse LeRoy Matthew Jr. Documents also state Grahams likely cause of death as strangulation of suffocation.
A judge accepted the plea in an Albemarle County court on Wednesday.
“You can tell there is a lot of emotion going on here”, said Paul Gancitano, as he looked at a photo of the families outside the courthouse.
Advertisement
In a plea deal, prosecutors dropped a capital murder charge that could have resulted in the death penalty and Matthew agreed to a sentence of four consecutive life terms.
