MARTA stabbing suspect may face death penalty in federal case

A man accused of fatally stabbing a 66-year-old woman on a MARTA train was indicted by a federal grand jury on a charge that carries the death penalty, according to the indictment provided to and reviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The indictment against John Elijah Matthews, 25, was returned Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

The U.S. attorney general has not yet decided whether to seek death in this case, U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg said.

Hertzberg charged Matthews earlier this month in the stabbing of Margaret Swan on a MARTA train. MARTA police said the May 30 attack, which happened as the train traveled between the Lakewood and Oakland City stations, appeared to be random.

According to the indictment, Matthews intended to kill Swan, a “particularly vulnerable” victim because of her age, in an “especially heinous, cruel and depraved manner.”

Hertzberg also brought federal charges this month against a 42-year-old man accused of shooting and wounding a teenager on a MARTA train. He said it’s believed to be the first time anyone in his role, and possibly statewide, has brought those rarely used charges, though they’ve been on the books for decades.

Swan’s death prompted national attention. The Trump administration launched an investigation of MARTA’s safety and security, to which the transit agency responded that recent, “senseless” attacks were outliers that don’t reflect the strides they have made in crime reduction.

Details in the killing were particularly brutal and brought swift charges from Hertzberg’s office.