Jesse Mathews is escorted into court in this file photo.Jesse Mathews’ attorneys want to interview the federal judge who sentenced Mathews’ family members to decades in prison for helping him before he was accused of robbing a pawnshop and killing a Chattanooga police sergeant.
Mathews’ attorneys, Lee Davis and Bryan Hoss, filed the request and letter with the federal court Thursday. Mathews wants his attorneys to ask U.S. District Judge Harry “Sandy” Mattice how he concluded that Mathews’ mother, Kathleen Mathews, had an “evil” influence over her son.
At her Feb. 13 sentencing, Mattice and Kathleen Mathews had a brief exchange that illuminates part of why the attorneys want the judge to testify:
Mathews: I will ask you why are you willing to punish me for things that my son did?
Mattice: Because I think you set those in motion.