Steve Burns

CHARLOTTESVILLE – (WMAL) Jesse Matthew is expected to plead guilty to the murders of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham and Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington in court in Charlottesville today as part of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty. Following his plea, the public can expect to hear new information, some of it gruesome, regarding the manner in which the two young women were killed.

“For the first time, the public will get a chance to hear, from the Commonwealth’s Attorney, what happened. We know they were murdered, and we know who murdered them, but we don’t know how it happened or where it happened,” said Charlottesville attorney and former prosecutor Scott Goodman, who has been following the case. “There will be gruesome testimony to be sure, describing how these two young women were killed.”

Goodman said victims’ families are required to be consulted prior to plea deals, though the final decision rests solely with the Commonwealth’s Attorney. The guilty pleas represent an abrupt end to two longstanding, high-profile murders.

“It’s a logical conclusion to a case where the defense had lost all pretrial motions to get evidence thrown out, and also here in an area where the death penalty is very, very rare,” Goodman said. “This makes the case complete, and it can be put behind the family. There’s no chance of appeal. It means Jesse Matthew will be locked up for the rest of his life. If there is a long, drawn out trial, several weeks in court, perhaps several years of appeals, it makes the whole ordeal that much more difficult for families.”

Graham went missing in September 2014 after a night out with friends in downtown Charlottesville. Her remains were found five weeks later. Harrington went missing in 2009 following a concert on the Virginia Tech campus. Following Matthew’s arrest in the Graham case, DNA linked him to a 2005 sexual assault in Fairfax County, for which he submitted an Alford plea last year and is serving three life sentences, and the Harrington case.