http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1410/27/sitroom.01.html
**Begin CNN transcript quote, The Situation Room, 27Oct2014**
Let's get to another story we've been following in THE SITUATION ROOM. Now that her remains have been identified, the Charlottesville, Virginia, area is coming to grips with the death of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham as legal action develops against the suspect in the Graham case, as well as in other cases. CNN's Brian Todd has been looking into all of this for us.
What are you finding out, Brian?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, tonight we've learned that Jesse Matthew is going to face a Fairfax County judge, Fairfax County, Virginia, this Friday. He's going to be video-conferenced in from his jail in Charlottesville.
But prosecutors near Charlottesville have yet to reveal their plans. It's a careful strategy, but it's playing out in a wounded community looking for justice.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TODD (voice-over): With chalk wall memorials and flower displays, the University of Virginia community tries to process the death of 18- year-old Hannah Graham.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The impact that it's had on our community has been really difficult for all of us.
TODD: Made even more difficult with the knowledge that a man with strong ties to Charlottesville, a local high school football and wrestling star, is the prime suspect. Confirmation of Graham's death now means Jesse Matthew could be charged with murder and could be eligible for the death penalty.
But experts say it's not clear what the best evidence in a murder case would be, and it may take a while to indict.
SCOTT GOODMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: That is a complicated case that will probably take a couple of weeks.
TODD: Less complicated, analysts say, is the case against Matthew in Fairfax County, Virginia, where he'll likely be tried first. There, he faces sexual assault and attempted capital murder charges from a 2005 incident where a woman was abducted while walking home from the grocery store. GOODMAN: Fairfax is the strongest case, because it's a case that has
been in the works for the last nine years. They have a live victim who can come in and testify.
TODD: There's a forensic link between that case and the abduction and murder of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington. She vanished in October 2009 while visiting UVA. Her body was found on a farm outside Charlottesville more than three months later. No one's been charged in Harrington's murder.
What's the link to Fairfax? The man who found Harrington's shirt here on this bush in downtown Charlottesville says police later told him they had a DNA match to the Fairfax case.
Harrington's parents recently spoke about the ties between their daughter's murder and Jesse Matthew's arrest in the Graham case.
GIL HARRINGTON, MORGAN HARRINGTON'S MOTHER: I'm so pleased that that has happened, but it doesn't change a lot for us, in some ways. You know, our bedroom is still empty upstairs.
TODD: And analysts say the Harrington case may be the weakest one legally against Jesse Matthew.
GOODMAN: There has been no evidence that we are aware of that establishes to any kind of degree of certainty that Mr. Matthew and Ms. Harrington were ever together.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TODD: That, of course, departs from the Hannah Graham case, where surveillance video and witness accounts put Jesse Matthew and Hannah Graham either together the night she disappeared or at least in close proximity to each other.
We reached out to James Campbell, Jesse Matthew's attorney. He told me he would not comment on any aspect of the Graham, Harrington or Fairfax County cases. But he did send a statement on behalf of Jesse Matthew's grandparents expressing sympathy to the families of Morgan Harrington and Hannah Graham.
BLITZER: Brian, thanks very much. Brian Todd reporting.
Let's get some more now with investigative journalist Coy Barefoot and CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes, a former FBI assistant director.
Coy, what's the latest that you're hearing on those charges Jesse Matthew faces in the 2005 rape and attempted murder case in Fairfax, that's just outside of Washington, D.C., in northern Virginia?
COY BAREFOOT, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: Right, Wolf. That took place on September 24th, 2005. Three felony charges in that case. Abduction, rape and attempted capital murder.
Big development today to learn that Mr. Matthew will have his arraignment by video court. It's not Skype. I've been asked that many times. It's not Skype. It's a private phone line that's used at the jail. He will not be leaving the jail. And that's going to disappoint him because I have sources at the jail that tell me all last week he was sharing with people in the jail that he was looking forward to going to Fairfax, something a road trip for him, I guess.
The big news in Fairfax, Wolf, is, as far as I am concerned, is the courage of the young woman who was assaulted. I mean, just think about this for a minute. This young woman was brutally raped, she was nearly beaten to death. And then she voluntarily subjected herself to a rape kit test. She was swabbed. She was scraped. Her entire naked body was photographed. She was poked. She was prodded.
They took samples of her hair, her blood, her urine, her skin, her fingernails. It's a grueling process that can last up to four hours. But she did it. And too often the victims of rape and of sexual assault, they're silenced by fear or intimidation or shame or murder. And that did not happen. And the evidence that this woman is bringing forward from the 2005 case, that could very well be the evidence that is possibly used to convict a serial killer.
BLITZER: All right --
BAREFOOT:
We can thank her courage for that.
BLITZER: Yes. All right. Stand by, Coy. Tom Fuentes, stand by as well. We have more to discuss, other developments in this case that has really sparked an enormous amount of concern around the country.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Investigative journalist Coy Barefoot and CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes, a former FBI assistant director. We're talking about the Hannah Graham case.
Jesse Matthew, we have some pictures, high school yearbook pictures of the suspect in this case. There you see some of the pictures, yearbook pictures from when he was in high school. And I guess a lot of people are asking, does he fit that profile? And he hasn't been convicted of anything yet. He's been charged but he hasn't been convicted of anything -- of potentially a serial killer?
TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, in a way, Wolf, he really does because most serial killers are charming, they're intelligent, they're outgoing, gregarious, they have friends. And we look back on many of the major cases of that and it's exactly they charmed their victims into becoming victims. And he certainly fit that
BLITZER: Coy, you spoke with the second tipster who reported the property to police where they found Hannah Graham's remains, her body. He actually walked around the property. What did he have to say to you about that? BAREFOOT: I was with him this morning. And just to review here,
there were two gentlemen who called in on the tip line to report the property where Hannah Graham was eventually found, and both men were motivated to call in because of an unusual collection of very large buzzards that were all over the property. The gentleman that I was with this morning was a Navy SEAL. He'd served two tours in Vietnam.
And he said to me, he said, Coy, I've seen it all. And I can tell you, I got out of my car that morning, I walked behind that house, I walked into the woods, I stood there under all those buzzards, and I was so freaked out and nervous that I had to leave. And I would think that it takes quite a lot to creep out a Navy SEAL. He walked into the woods and as we know now he was only feet from the body of Hannah Graham, but he just did not see her.
That was the morning of October 6th. And he said the woods were so thick, and such a thicketed woods leading down to the creek that he couldn't see her. But he did walk the property and look as best as he could, Wolf.
BLITZER: So you hear about that.
Tom, we're told there's no more active digging going on, on that property, no more searching. So it would appear police believe they've collected enough evidence, there's nothing left there to go through. Is that your assessment?
FUENTES: Yes. I think so, or they wouldn't have released the property for other people to be walking around there and released for remains. So they're finished at that site. And chances are they may have come up with nothing as far as the implication of Jesse Matthew murdering her, the decomposition, the evidence just might not be there to show, because we already know they were together.
So just finding his DNA on her pants or other remains there won't help. They need to find more specific indication that he was the last person with her, and I think the key to that is going to be whatever they found in his apartment, in his car, did he take a souvenir, did he take jewelry, a cell phone, money or billfold, underwear. You know, often these guys take some souvenir that they can reminisce.
BLITZER: All right. We'll see what they learn.
Tom Fuentes, thanks very much. Coy Barefoot, thanks to you, as well.
**End of CNN transcript quote**
