Man to plead guilty to 2 students’ slayings

Tracci said the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office is unable to provide further comment on either the plea agreement or any information related to the case.

The letter sent to the media and published by WRIC on Monday says a hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on March 2 at the Albemarle County Circuit Court.

Accused University of Virginia killer Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr.is planning to cop a plea Wednesday to avoid the death penalty for kidnapping and murdering two Virginia college students. Past year a grand jury indicted Matthew on charges of first-degree murder and abduction with the intent to defile in the Harrington case. Morgan Harrington was a 20-year-old Virginia Tech student who disappeared while attending a concert in Charlottesville in October, 2009. He faces the death penalty when he goes on trial for that case in July 2016.

Although Harrington was killed in 2009, Matthew wasn’t charged in her death and disappearance until 2015.

Matthew fled the area but he was arrested on a beach in Galveston County, Texas, and returned to Virginia.

Matthew gave the plea to all three charges in the Fairfax case: attempted capital murder, abduction and sexual assault. Charlottesville police said she and Matthew were seen on a video surveillance camera walking on a downtown mall together.

Matthew, who was a taxi driver before going to work at the University of Virginia hospital, also had been accused of raping students in 2002 and 2003 at Liberty University and Christopher Newport University, where he had played football.

The DNA evidence in the Fairfax sexual assault, in turn, linked Matthew to the Harrington case, authorities have said.