Jesse Matthew attack victim: "I felt helpless"
FAIRFAX, Va. -- The woman who was sexually assaulted by Jesse Matthew nearly a decade before he was charged with abducting and killing University of Virginia student Hannah Graham says she thought the attack would end her life.
"I felt helpless. I was screaming and no one would help. I thought this was going to be the end of my life is, what I was thinking," the victim, known only as "RG," testified in a Fairfax, Va. court Thursday, reports CBS affiliate WDBJ.
Last week, Matthew was effectively convicted of attempted murder and other charges related to the 2005 Fairfax attack. After three days of trial testimony, Matthew entered an Alford plea. That means he acknowledges prosecutors have enough evidence to convict but does not admit guilt.
The victim's testimony is intended to help the judge determine an appropriate punishment. Matthew will be sentenced in October and faces life in prison.
The woman said that testifying about her ordeal forced her to relive an experience she had put into emotional "cold storage."
After the attack, the victim said her brother gave her a detective's phone number. She said she still has it in her purse, and carries it with her credit cards, reports the station.
Matthew is also awaiting trial in the abduction and murder of Graham, who was found dead five weeks after she vanished last September. if convicted, he faces death in that case.
Officials have said the 2005 attack is linked by DNA to the Graham case, as well as to the 2009 disappearance and death of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington.