NORFOLK, Va. — Michael Ebong appeared in Norfolk General District Court Tuesday morning on rape and sexual assault charges. The Commonwealth moved to nolle-pros on the third charge of abduction.
Ebong faced the woman accusing him of rape and sexual assault. She took the stand, giving a detailed testimony in the preliminary hearing regarding the day she met Ebong on May 22.
This development in the case comes as Norfolk police are still investigating the two suspicious deaths of the women found in the same area of Ocean View where the woman said this incident occurred.
Norfolk police said they found evidence linking Ebong to the rape investigation while they were conducting a separate investigation into the suspicious deaths.
The two women who died months apart in Ocean View are both in their 30s. Ebong is not facing any charges in the suspicious death investigations.
The attorney for the woman who took the stand Tuesday said she was 39 at the time of the incident. She said she ran into Ebong when she and her friends went to Seaside Raw Bar Restaurant in Virginia Beach for drinks. She testified that Ebong told her he offered her a drink, but she had no independent memory of that happening.
She then testified that she couldn’t remember having met him that night.
She said she woke up hours later in the middle of the night in Ebong's apartment, feeling disoriented and sick, and struggled to focus to get any help.
She said Ebong tried comforting her while she didn't feel well and that's when he pinned her down and raped her. She felt disoriented and had trouble breathing, so she could not yell for help.
Eventually, she left the apartment, but struggles to remember every detail of the night and when each incident occurred.
Two months after the incident in July, the woman said she called police to tell them what happened after she recognized Ebong in a social media post.
When she notified detectives, Norfolk police were already investigating the two suspicious deaths of the women along Hillside Avenue near where Ebong lived.
That's when police said they found evidence, connecting Ebong to the rape investigation and arrested him.
The judge certified the charges to be reviewed by a grand jury and Ebong is expected to appear again on a later date.