Victim in case linked to Hannah Graham murder due to take stand
FAIRFAX, Va. -- The victim in a 2005 sexual assault that authorities have linked to the suspect in the death of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham is expected to take the witness stand Thursday at a pretrial hearing.
The victim, who is flying from India, is also in line to testify at the trial next week of Jesse Matthew. Police have charged the 33-year-old Charlottesville man with attempted capital murder and sexual assault in the 2005 Fairfax County case, in addition to separate charges of abducting and killing Graham.
Prosecutors in Albemarle County are seeking the death penalty for Graham's abduction and death, which prompted a frenzied, weekslong search for the teen in September 2014 that drew national headlines. A judge is scheduled to select a trial date in that case later this month.
Authorities say DNA from the 2005 sex assault is linked to the Graham case, as well as to the 2009 disappearance of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, who was later found dead.
Thursday's hearing is to determine whether the victim can reliably identify Matthew as her attacker. Matthew's lawyers are skeptical that she can and say that her recollection of the decade-old attack might be corrupted by pretrial publicity that has frequently shown Matthew's photo.
Matthew's lawyers have asked that Thursday's hearing be closed to the press. With the jury trial scheduled to begin Monday, public defender Dawn Butorac says that a heavily publicized pretrial hearing "will annihilate Mr. Matthew's right to a free trial." She argued that publicizing details of a suppression hearing defeats the purpose of such a hearing, because the jury pool could be exposed to the very testimony the defense wants to keep out of trial.
Matthew's lawyers argued that whether the woman can or cannot identify Matthew in court was "not the type of information that potential jurors should be privy to just a few short days prior to the start of trial," reports CBS affiliate WTVR.
A lawyer for a consortium of news outlets, including The Associated Press, says the judge can neutralize the effects of pretrial publicity during jury selection.
Prosecutors also filed a response supporting the public's right of access to pretrial hearings.
Matthew faces up to life in prison if convicted in the Fairfax County case.