WUSA-TV, Washington

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A man accused of kidnapping and killing two Virginia college students in two separate incidents is expected to enter a plea agreement in both cases, a county commonwealth's attorney said Monday.

Jesse Matthew, accused of killing Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington in 2009 and University of Virginia student Hannah Graham in 2014, will appear Wednesday in Albemarle County Circuit Court here, Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci said.

Matthew now is serving a prison term of three consecutive life sentences for sexually assaulting a woman in Fairfax County in 2005.

In Graham's death, Matthew was charged with capital murder, making him eligible for the death penalty. Without a plea agreement, he could have faced the death penalty had he been convicted in a trial.

Man accused of 2 murders gets 3 life terms for assault

Tracci wouldn't comment on what charges Matthew is expected to plead to. WTVR-TV, Richmond, reported the deal would spare his life.

Matthew’s lawyer, public capital defender Douglas Ramseur, declined to comment.

Graham’s September 2014 disappearance came amid rising national concern about sexual assaults and other crimes in and near universities. A massive search ended when a team from a Richmond-area sheriff’s office found her body five weeks later on abandoned property in Albemarle County, about 12 miles from the Charlottesville campus and 6 miles from a hay field where Harrington’s remains had been found in January 2010.

Harrington vanished while attending a Metallica concert at the University of Virginia in 2009. Authorities have not said exactly how either student died.

Graham disappeared after a night out with friends here. In surveillance video, she can be seen walking unsteadily and running at times before crossing a seven-block strip of bars, restaurants and shops. Another video captured her leaving a restaurant with Matthew, who had his arm around her. He was the last person seen with Graham, according to authorities.

After police named Matthew a person of interest in Graham’s disappearance, he fled and later was arrested on a beach in south Texas. He was charged with abduction with intent to defile, a felony that empowered police to swab his cheek for a DNA sample.

That sample connected Matthew to a 2005 sexual assault in Fairfax County, a Virginia suburb of the District of Columbia, according to authorities.

Accused Hannah Graham killer enters plea in '05 attack

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

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. But those cases were dropped when the women declined to press charges and he dropped out of school.

Contributing: The Associated Press. Follow WUSA-TV on Twitter: @wusa9

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