Victim takes stand in sex assualt case linked to UVA student murder
FAIRFAX, Va. - A woman who authorities say was sexually assaulted by the same man charged with killing a University of Virginia student took the stand as her alleged attacker sat in a Virginia courtroom Thursday.
The woman's testimony was focused on a narrow legal question, though she did testify that his face looked familiar when she saw a photograph of him online. But it provided a preview of the courtroom drama expected next week, when a jury trial begins for 33-year-old Jesse Matthew.
Matthew, of Charlottesville, is charged in Fairfax with the sexual assault and attempted murder of the woman who testified at Thursday's pretrial hearing. He faces a separate trial later in Albemarle County for the abduction and killing of Hannah Graham, whose disappearance last September prompted a weeks-long search and drew national headlines.
Thursday's hearing was to determine whether the woman's ability to identify Matthew as her attacker in the 2005 Fairfax assault had been corrupted by the passage of time and by pretrial publicity in which Matthew's face has been shown repeatedly.
Matthew's lawyers wanted her to be barred from telling the jury that she recognizes Matthew. The judge, David Schell, refused to do so, though the issue could be revisited at trial.
Schell said there was no reason to deal with the issue before trial unless there was some evidence that police or prosecutors had made some undue suggestion to the woman that Matthew was the man who attacked her.
The woman, who now lives in India and is not being identified because The Associated Press generally withholds the names of sexual assault victims, testified briefly about what she had discussed Matthew's identify with detectives. She testified that the state informed her of Matthew's arrest and the media interest in the case, but never showed her pictures of Matthew, reports CBS affiliate WTVR.
She said that out of her own "curiosity," she searched for Matthew's photo online in October, reports the station.
She also said she made a remark to police that Matthew's face looked familiar but his hair looked different.
The victim was not asked to identify Matthew in court and never made eye contact with him, reports the station.
It is unclear whether her ability to identify her attacker will be a key issue at trial. Prosecutors have said they have DNA evidence tying Matthew to the attack. DNA evidence is also how police linked the Fairfax case to Graham's, and to the case of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, who disappeared after a concert on the UVA campus in 2009 and was later found murdered.
Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Morrogh referred to questions about the victim's ability to recognize Matthew as "sort of a non-issue" and suggested he may not even ask the woman to try to identify Matthew.
During Thursday's hearing, Matthew sat at the defense table in shackles and a green jail jumpsuit.
At the outset of the hearing, Schell rejected a motion from defense lawyers to close the suppression hearing to the news media based on the argument that it would create unfair publicity on the eve of trial.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday, and Schell said that about 150 potential jurors will be available if needed.