Judge Says Victim Can ID Suspect in Sexual Assault Trial: Media Reports

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Image: Jesse Matthew (Fairfax County Police Department)

Jury selection begins Monday in the trial of a Charlottesville man accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2005 in Fairfax City.

The victim traveled from India with two small children to testify Thursday in a pretrial hearing for Jesse Matthew, according to WRC-TV Channel 4. Matthew will go on trial next week on charges that he attacked and sexually assaulted the woman as she walked home from a local grocery store.

His trial in the decade-old case will take place in the Fairfax Circuit Court at the courthouse in Fairfax City. Matthew also has been linked by DNA evidence to the disappearance last fall of Hannah Graham, a University of Virginia student. Graham vanished in September, and her remains were found about five weeks later.

The aim of Thursday’s hearing was to determine whether pretrial publicity and the passage of time had constrained the victim’s ability to identify Matthew, according to media reports.

Matthew’s lawyers wanted Judge David Schell to bar the victim from telling the jury that she recognizes Matthew. But Schell declined to do this, though the issue could be revisited at trial, radio station WTOP reported.

In next week’s trial, Matthew, 33, will face charges of attempted capital murder, abduction with attempt to defile, and sexual penetration with an object. He faces up to three life sentences and has pleaded not guilty.

In the Graham case, Matthew faces charges in Albemarle County of capital murder, first-degree murder and abduction with intent to defile. A trial has not been scheduled in that case.