FAIRFAX, Va. — Jesse Matthew Jr., charged with the murders of college students Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington, has been sentenced to three life prison terms for a sexual assault on a woman a decade ago in northern Virginia.
The Charlottesville, Virginia, man was sentenced Friday in Fairfax for attempted capital murder and sexual assault of a woman in 2005. The judge ordered the sentences to be served consecutively at Friday’s sentencing.
DNA evidence collected from Matthew during last year’s investigation of Graham’s disappearance linked him to the Fairfax County case.
Matthew’s family asked the judge for leniency, and a former girlfriend wrote a letter on Matthew’s behalf saying he was raped as a child.
His trial in the Hannah Graham case is set for July. He faces a possible death sentence there.
