UVA Abduction Suspect Jesse Matthew in Custody
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Charlottesville Police Department(CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.) — The suspect wanted in the case of missing University of Virginia student Hannah Graham is in custody in Galveston, Texas, officials announced Wednesday.
Jesse Matthew, 32, was the last person seen with the student. The 18-year-old sophomore was reported missing more than two weeks ago.
His capture came one day after officials obtained an arrest warrant for Matthew on charges of abduction with intent to defile, in addition to an unrelated dangerous driving warrant after he sped away from a Charlottesville police station on Saturday.
The suspect hired a lawyer, former Ablemarle County prosecutor Jim Camblos, on the same day he fled from law enforcement.
New court records emerged Wednesday indicating that Matthew was convicted of trespassing in 2010. The circumstances of the case could not be immediately determined, but court documents show that it was resolved with a $50 fine.
He was also charged with assault and aggravated grand larceny in 2009 when he was working as a taxi driver, but that case was never prosecuted. Janice Redinger, who worked as his defense attorney in the case, told ABC News that it was a minor incident that was settled with the complainant, meaning that the charges were dropped.
“I remember him being kind of a soft-spoken, understated guy that was very eager that we get it settled in a positive way, which we did,” said Redinger, who is also an adjunct professor at the University of Virginia Law School.
ABC News had previously reported that Matthew had 22 misdemeanors and infractions, largely related to minor traffic offenses, between 1999 and 2007.
Starting in August 2012, Matthew worked at the University of Virginia Medical Center as a patient technician in the operating room and was employed there at the time of Graham’s disappearance on Sept. 13.
He was also working as a part-time volunteer with a private school’s high school football team since August. The headmaster of the Covenant School, a private Christian pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade school in Charlottesville, sent a letter to parents saying that Matthew had interviews with the athletic director and the head football coach in addition to passing normal background and reference checks.
Matthew attended Liberty University, the evangelical Christian school in Lynchburg, Virginia, founded by televangelist Jerry Falwell. The school confirmed to ABC News that he was a student there from 2000 to 2002 and was on the roster for their football team for the 2000, 2001 and 2002 seasons.
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