Trial Scheduled for Jesse Matthew in 2005 Sexual Assault

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The Charlotteville man charged with murder in the disappearance of a University of Virginia student will go to trial June 8 in a separate case involving a 2005 attack on a woman in Fairfax City.

In a hearing Friday, Fairfax Circuit Court Judge David S. Schell rescheduled the trial of Jesse L. Matthew Jr., originally set to begin March 9, after the defense asked for more time to prepare, according to a report by WRC-TV Channel 4.

Matthew, 33, is accused of attempted murder and the sexual assault of a 26-year-old woman who was attacked while walking home from a grocery store.

He also was indicted Tuesday in Albemarle County on charges of first-degree murder and abduction with intent to defile in the case of Hannah Graham, the 18-year-old U.Va. student. She disappeared in September and was found dead in Albemarle County a few weeks later. Matthew will not face the death penalty in that case; the abduction and first-degree murder charges are punishable by up to life in prison.

In addition, police have said forensic evidence links Matthew to the 2009 disappearance of 20-year-old Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, whose body also was found in Albemarle County.

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