On Sept. 24, 2005, Jesse L. Matthew Jr. viciously attacked a young, City of Fairfax woman, leaving her beaten and bloody on the ground. But in court last week – and during his June 8 trial – she needed only words, not fists, to respond to him at last.
And the combination of his actions and her words could send him to prison for the rest of his life when he’s sentenced in October. But she didn’t speak on her behalf, alone.
“I’m just one of the victims of these kinds of crimes,” she told the judge last Thursday in Fairfax County Circuit Court. “By the time I’m done talking, another woman will be a victim.”
In fall 2005, the woman lived a few blocks from the Giant Foods store on Jermantown Road, in a townhouse on Rock Garden Drive. A native of India, she was 26 then and in the U.S. to study. And on the night of the crime, she’d gone to the grocery store for milk and was steps from her front door, around 8:30 p.m., when a man grabbed her from behind.
She said he carried her to a grassy area where he threw her down and began hitting, choking and sexually assaulting her. Then he suddenly fled, possibly scared off by a passing car’s headlights, according to prosecutors, and ran toward Fairhaven Court.
Police investigated, but years passed and, although the case remained open, nothing significant happened until summer 2010, when a positive DNA match was made, tying the murder of a college student to the attack of Fairfax woman.
That student was 20-year-old Virginia Tech sophomore Morgan Harrington, who vanished outside a Metallica concert in Charlottesville in October 2009. Morgan’s body was found in a pasture, three months later; and in summer 2010, authorities linked her killer’s DNA to the person who’d abducted and sexually assaulted the Fairfax woman nearly five years earlier.
Those cases were connected to Matthew when he was arrested and charged in Charlottesville with the first-degree murder and abduction of UVA student Hannah Graham, a West Potomac High School graduate, found murdered on Oct. 18, 2014, after a month-long search; Graham was reported missing on Sept. 13, 2014. Authorities say surveillance footage shows Matthew with her shortly before she disappeared. Matthew’s DNA connected him to the other two victims.
Matthew is now slated to stand trial in Charlottesville in the Hannah Graham case before returning to Fairfax County in October to learn his punishment for the Fairfax assault.
MATTHEW, 33 of Charlottesville, was charged with attempted capital murder, abduction with intent to defile and object sexual penetration in connection with the Fairfax case. During his trial, a forensics expert testified that DNA evidence obtained from one of the Fairfax woman’s fingernails after her attack matches Matthew’s DNA.
After the crime, she returned to India, but came back to Virginia to testify against him at his trial. (The Connection is not identifying her because she’s a victim of a sexual assault.)
Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh is the prosecutor; public defender Dawn Butorac represents Matthew.
Matthew’s jury trial began June 8 before Circuit Court Judge David Schell, with the Fairfax victim recalling the harrowing details of her attack. The prosecution presented its entire case.
In a surprise move, instead of the defense portion beginning, Matthew instead entered an Alford plea. In so doing, he didn’t admit guilt, but acknowledged the existence of enough evidence to convict him. The court may then impose a sentence as if the defendant has been convicted of the crime.
Schell then dismissed the jury and set Matthew’s sentencing for Oct. 2. He also ordered both sides to return last Thursday, June 18, so the victim could tell the court the impacts the crime has had on her life. Afterward, she was free to return to India.
Morrogh was the only one who questioned her. He began by asking the dark-haired woman how she was feeling, that Saturday, before she was assaulted. She said she was happy and relaxed. He then asked her thoughts during her ordeal.
“Panic, a state of shock, like it was unreal,” she replied. “It was like when you’re unable to wake yourself up from a bad dream.”
“And when you were taken back into the darkness?” asked Morrogh.
“I felt utterly helpless,” she said. “I was screaming and I felt nobody was going to come. I feared I would be killed – that this would be the end of my life.”
Describing her physical injuries, she said, “I was dropped, so my back, hands and neck were hurting. I had a black-and-blue face and my nose was bleeding. The next few days, I was having trouble walking; everything was hurting.”
Morrogh then asked her to tell the judge the long-term effects on her psychologically. First, though, she thanked him for giving her the opportunity to do so.
“I’m depressed and in denial, like this didn’t happen to me,” said the woman. “Coming so close to death, I’d basically stopped living. I didn’t want to get up. You feel humiliated and in a vicious cycle of anger and self-hatred.”
She also said she still carries Fairfax City Police Det. Mike Boone’s business card in her purse. “He told me, ‘Whenever you remember something about this incident to capture this guy,’ to call him. I guess I can give it back to him now.”
Morrogh also asked her to explain how it affected her to return to Virginia again and “have to testify about these things that were done to you.”
“It was hard reliving those moments,” she replied. “You’re reliving them every day, but they went into cold storage for awhile. But coming back to that reality, my first instinct was to run away. It took courage, but it was important. If I don’t testify, the person wouldn’t be charged and it might happen to someone else.”
AFTERWARD, outside the courthouse, Morrogh called her an “amazing and wonderful woman to come from so far and speak, not just for her, but for all women faced with the scourge of sexual abuse. It was difficult for her to be on the stand, but I was proud to be in the same courtroom with her. She never lost faith in the system … and we feel gratitude toward her.”
He said it was “the victim’s day to tell the judge, face to face, what happened to her. And I believe it was an important part – if not the most important part – of the trial. Even after 30-some years in this business, I still believe people are good. But some are very bad – and [Matthew is] one of them.”
Also there, on behalf of her own daughter, plus the victim, was Harrington’s mother, Gil. “There are a lot of missing and murdered girls who don’t get to a trial,” she explained. “That we have a suspect [in Morgan’s case] and will get to a trial eventually is encouraging. There’s this case, Hannah’s and then Morgan’s; each pushes the others like dominoes. But we have patience and we know Matthew will be in jail and won’t be able to hurt anyone else.”
“For me, it’s always been about saving the next girl,” continued Harrington. “You don’t want another family to go through this pain.” Toward that end, she created HelpSavetheNextGirl.com, alerting young women to predatory danger. Calling the Fairfax victim a hero, she said, “I applaud her courage and determination in finding justice.”