Prosecutor: Victim in Matthew case resisted brutal attack
Published 4:00 pm Monday, June 8, 2015
- FILE - In this Nov. 14, 2014 file photo Jesse Matthew Jr. looks toward the gallery while appearing in court in Fairfax, Va. A woman who authorities say was sexually assaulted by the same man charged with killing a University of Virginia student came face to face with her alleged attacker in a Fairfax courtroom Thursday. The encounter was brief, and the woman's testimony was focused on a narrow legal question, though she did testify that his face looked familiar. But it provided a preview of the courtroom drama expected next week, when a jury trial begins for 33-year-old Jesse Matthew. (AP Photo/The Washington Post, Bill O'Leary, Pool, File)
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A woman attacked in 2005 “fought like the dickens” to fend off a brutal attack by the same man charged with the abduction and death last year of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, prosecutors said Monday.
During opening statements at the trial of Jesse Matthew, 33, prosecutor Ray Morrogh said that struggle produced the DNA evidence that links Matthew to the crime.
Matthew is charged in Fairfax with attempted capital murder, abduction and sexual assault in connection with a 2005 attack on a woman walking home from the supermarket. He has pleaded not guilty.
Defense lawyers, meanwhile, urged jurors to be cautious in evaluating DNA evidence. Public defender Robert Frank said DNA can be transferred inadvertently by coming in contact with common objects.
“There is a possibility that DNA came … from innocent contact,” Frank said.
The woman has flown back from India, where she now lives, to testify against him.
Monday’s trial began with Matthew, in a dress shirt and yellow necktie, formally entering pleas of not guilty in a soft-spoken voice.
Jury selection concluded early Monday afternoon after about three hours. A panel of seven men and seven women, including two alternates, was chosen. Several jurors were stricken from the case because they said the pretrial publicity in the case would make it difficult to be impartial.
Matthew was charged in the long-unsolved Fairfax case last year after his arrest in connection with Graham’s disappearance yielded a hit on DNA evidence.
The victim in the Fairfax case testified briefly at a pretrial hearing last week, saying that Matthew’s face looked familiar to her, but that his hair, now in dreadlocks, was different in 2005. Defense lawyers have questioned whether the woman can reliably identify Matthew as her attacker, given the passage of time and pretrial publicity that has frequently shown Matthew’s face in news reports.
Because of the DNA evidence, though, it is unclear whether her ability to identify Matthew will be an important issue at trial. Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh told the judge that he might not even ask the woman to identify Matthew in front of the jury and has said the question is a “non-issue.”
A pool of 100 potential jurors was called for Monday’s jury selection.
After Matthew entered his not-guilty pleas, the judge asked him whether he was ready for trial. Matthew said no. His lawyers have asked several times to delay the trial, and public defender Dawn Butorac again sought a delay Monday.
“He said he’s not ready for trial today because we’re not ready for trial,” Butorac said.
Judge David Schell denied the request; the trial was already delayed once earlier this year.
“There has been ample time to prepare for trial,” Schell said.
The victim in the Fairfax case, who was 26 at the time of the attack, has said that she was walking home from the grocery store about 10 p.m. on a Saturday night in September 2005 when her assailant grabbed her from behind, dragged her into a wooded area behind some townhomes and sexually assaulted her.
The Associated Press generally does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault.
The Graham case, which includes a capital murder charge, will be set for trial later this month.
