A former hospital worker is expected to enter guilty pleas this week to the high-profile murder and abduction of two Virginia university students, prosecutors said on Monday.
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Jesse Leroy Matthew, Jr., is expected to plead guilty to the abduction and murder of both Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington in a court hearing on Wednesday, March 2. Matthew’s admission of guilt may be part of a plea bargain with Albemarle County in exchange for his life.
Matthew’s lawyer, public capital defender Douglas Ramseur, declined to comment.
“There are no winners here”, mother Gil Harrington told CNN affiliate WVIR.
A hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Tracci said.
Graham, an 18-year-old University of Virginia student, went missing in September 2014.
A series of Twitter posts Monday on the page of “Help Save the Next Girl”, an organization founded by Harrington’s parents, expressed gratitude for the plea deal.
The DNA evidence in the Fairfax County sexual assault linked Matthew to the Harrington case, authorities have said. Harrington was a Virginia Tech student who vanished after attending a Metallica concert at U.Va.in 2009. Authorities have not said exactly how either student died. Charlottesville police said she and Matthew were seen on a video surveillance camera walking on a downtown mall together.
Graham disappeared after a night out with friends in Charlottesville.
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After cops named Matthew a person of interest in Graham’s disappearance, he split and was later captured on a beach in Texas. But those cases were dropped when the women declined to press charges and he dropped out of school.
