Victim in Jesse Matthew case describes brutal attack
FAIRFAX, Va. - A woman who authorities say was attacked by the same man who killed college student Hannah Graham last year has told jurors how she struggled to fight off the man who tried to rape her nearly a decade ago.
Jesse Matthew of Charlottesville is charged in Fairfax with attempted capital murder, abduction and sexual assault in connection with the 2005 attack on the woman, who was walking home from the supermarket. He has pleaded not guilty.
Matthew is charged in a separate case with Graham's death.
On Monday, the victim in the 2005 attack described being choked and grabbed just steps from her home. She escaped only when a bystander intervened. The woman flew back from India, where she now lives, to testify against Matthew.
Prosecutor Ray Morrogh told jurors the woman "fought like the dickens" to fend off the attack and that DNA evidence links Matthew to the crime.
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.
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.
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."
The Graham case, which includes a capital murder charge, will be set for trial later this month.