AP
UPDATE: TYRO, Va. (AP) _ Authorities say a 20-year-old northern Virginia man has died after falling from Crabtree Falls in Nelson County during a hike. Multiple news outlets report Franklin Miguel Madrana Guevara fell Sunday around 5:30 p.m. at the falls in the George Washington National Forest. Nelson County Sheriff’s Lt. Billy Mays says the victim was with a church group from Annandale. Authorities say this is the 29th or 30th victim of the Crabtree Falls area since the U.S. Forest Service began keeping records in 1982. Crabtree Falls is one of the tallest sets of waterfalls in the United States east of the Mississippi River.
Jesse Matthew, Jr.
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) _ Jesse Matthew, who could eventually face a death penalty in the slaying of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, has formally pleaded not guilty in a separate prosecution that could send him to prison for life. Trial began Monday for the 33-year-old Matthew in Fairfax, where he is charged with attempted capital murder, abduction and sexual assault in connection with a 2005 attack. Matthew, wearing a dress shirt and yellow tie, entered his plea in a soft-spoken voice. Matthew was charged in the long-unsolved Fairfax case last year after his arrest in connection with Graham’s disappearance yielded a hit on DNA evidence. The victim in the Fairfax case has flown back from India to testify against him. A pool of 100 potential jurors was called for Monday’s jury selection.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Violent crime increased and property crime decreased in Virginia in 2014. The Virginia State Police released the annual report on crime statistics Friday. It shows that violent crime — including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — increased by 1 percent in 2013 after declining by 1.6 percent the previous year. The homicide rate increased slightly, to 4.05 per 100,000 residents. Property crimes such as burglary, larceny and vehicle theft decreased 5.8 percent after falling 3.9 percent the previous year. The FBI has not yet released the 2014 national statistics for violent and property crimes. In Virginia, vehicle thefts and attempted thefts decreased 9.3 percent, robbery declined 5.3 percent and drug offenses were down 2.5 percent. Fraud increased by 12.5 percent.
Jesse Matthew, Jr.
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) _ Jesse Matthew, who could eventually face a death penalty in the slaying of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, is going on trial in a separate prosecution that could send him to prison for life. Trial begins Monday for the 33-year-old Matthew in Fairfax, where he is charged with attempted capital murder, abduction and sexual assault in connection with a 2005 attack on a woman. Matthew was charged in the long-unsolved Fairfax case last year after his arrest in connection with Graham’s disappearance yielded a hit on DNA evidence. The victim in the Fairfax case has flown back from India to testify against him. Jury selection begins Monday morning and could stretch into Tuesday. The judge said 100 potential jurors will be available Monday and another 50 on Tuesday.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ The Obama administration says Virginia would have better health and a higher standard of living if the state were to expand publicly funded health insurance for the poor. The White House Council of Economic Advisers released a report Thursday estimating that an additional 179,000 Virginians would have health insurance coverage and 16,000 fewer residents would experience symptoms of depression under Medicaid expansion. The report also said Virginia will miss out on $1.24 billion in federal funding in 2016 by not expanding Medicaid. Opposition against Medicaid expansion remains strong among in Virginia, where the GOP-controlled General Assembly has blocked repeated expansion efforts by Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Expanding Medicaid is a key part of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, but the U.S. Supreme Court gave states the option of opting out.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ The Supreme Court of Virginia is weighing a desperate plea to temporarily block the planned closure of Sweet Briar College. Justices heard arguments Thursday on the request but did not immediately rule. In March, the small, private women’s school announced its planned closure later this summer, citing insurmountable financial challenges. But a coalition of faculty, alumnae and others is seeking to block the closure of the 114-year-old school in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. They maintain the college’s finances are not as dire as its leaders have said. An attorney for those seeking to keep the college open appealed to the court to act quickly, saying time is of the essence to keep the school afloat. But an attorney for the school argued for an orderly closure.
Jesse Matthew, Jr.
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) _ The victim in a 2005 sexual assault that authorities have linked to the death of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham is expected to take the witness stand at a pretrial hearing. The victim is flying from India to testify at the trial next week of Jesse Matthew. Police have charged the 33-year-old Charlottesville man with attempted capital murder and sexual assault in the 2005 Fairfax County case, in addition to separate charges of abducting and killing Graham. Authorities say DNA evidence links the cases. Thursday’s hearing is to determine whether the victim can reliably identify Matthew as her attacker. Matthew’s lawyers are skeptical that she can, and believe her recollection of the decade-old attack might be corrupted by pretrial publicity that has frequently shown Matthew’s mugshot.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ The Supreme Court of Virginia is being asked to temporarily block the planned closure of Sweet Briar College. With arguments scheduled Thursday, the justices are considering the appeal of a Circuit Court ruling that refused to put the brakes on the August shuttering of the all-women’s college. The lawsuit brought by Amherst County Attorney Ellen Bowyer maintains the college is a trust based on the will of its founder and Sweet Briar’s decision to close must be approved by a court. The college maintains its decision to close rests solely with its governing board. It’s not clear when the justices will rule but in taking the appeal they noted the intense public interest in the issue. Typically, a ruling is issued a month or more after arguments.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ The Virginia Lottery says three tickets bought at the same Richmond-area convenience store are worth $1 million apiece in the latest Mega Millions drawing. The tickets matched the first five numbers in Tuesday night’s drawing. They were bought at a store in Colonial Heights. The numbers drawn were 2-9-11-22-23. The winning tickets missed the Mega Ball number 12. The winning ticketholders have six months to claim the prizes. The Lottery says the odds of winning the $1 million prize are one in about 18.5 million.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ The leaders of Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s ethics committee say Virginia has much work left to do in cleaning up its state government. The committee met Wednesday at the Capitol to discuss potential areas that need reform, including how campaign funds can be spent and how much legislators are paid. Lawmakers passed a last-minute ethics package earlier this year that put new limits on gifts to lawmakers. But former Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling said Wednesday that “big issues” still need to be addressed. State officials have been wrestling with how best to fix Virginia’s generally lax ethics rules for two years. Their efforts were spurred by a gift scandal involving former Gov. Bob McDonnell.