DNA test results released Friday excluded Jesse Matthew as a suspect from the Aug. 2013 murder and abduction of Alexis Murphy.
Randy Allen Taylor was originally convicted of Murphy’s murder, but after the disappearance and death of University student Hannah Graham — for which Matthew is charged — Taylor’s attorney requested further DNA testing. Testing, done by the FBI, looked for matches between Matthew and evidence collected in the car Murphy was driving on Aug. 3, 2013 when she disappeared.
“With a high percentage of cases like this in the area that Jesse Matthew was already linked to, it was worth writing a letter asking the commonwealth attorney to request that the state lab compare Jesse Matthew’s DNA to the samples found it Alexis Murphy’s car,” Attorney Michael Hallahan said in an October interview.
Physical evidence of a forced encounter found in Taylor’s camper included a diamond stud, a long black hair forcibly removed and a fingernail fragment, according to a Friday press release from the Nelson County Commonwealth Attorney’s office.
“At no time did Jesse Matthew ever come up by Randy Taylor or Mr. Hallahan until Matthew’s arrest in October 2014,” Commonwealth Attorney Anthony Martin said in a press release.
Taylor was sentenced to two life terms in prison in July, though parties discussed a 20-year sentence in exchange for information about Murphy’s location. He refused to plead guilty and declined the offer.
Taylor also said Murphy was in his camper with a third person — later alleged by Hallahan to be Daemon Bradley — and the both of them left separately. Bradley, who had an alibi, looked nothing like Matthew and denied ever going to Taylor’s camper.
If Matthew had been connected to the Murphy case, Taylor would have received a retrial based on the new evidence.
“Nelson County authorities have still not received information from investigators in the Jesse Matthew case that links him in any way to the abduction and murder of Alexis Murphy,” the press release said. “Some of the same investigators who worked with the Alexis Murphy case were also involved in the Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington cases in which Matthew is either charged or considered a suspect.”
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