A D.C. man was convicted by a jury Tuesday of murdering his two roommates. One of them was struck at least 26 times in the head with a hammer, including after a black plastic bag was placed over his head.
Jeffrey Bernard Neal, 25, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder while armed and related charges for the deaths of Leon Young, 22, and Delano Wingfield, 23. Neal will be sentenced Oct. 20.
Neal and the two victims had been childhood friends, according to a press release from the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office.
Young's body was found in the attic of the home the three shared in Shaw. He was naked except for a plastic bag on his head, and an autopsy revealed his head had been struck at least 26 times with a hammer, prosecutors said. His blood was found in Neal's bedroom.
Wingfield's body was found buried in a shallow grave in the backyard. He, too had been struck in the head with a hammer.
After Young's body was discovered June 12, 2014, Neal tried to flee to Mexico in Young's car, using Young's debit card along the way to buy food and gas, according to court documents revealed in 2014.
He stopped in Florida when he ran out of money, asked him mother to wire him cash, then took a bus back to D.C., police said. Neal was arrested a home in southeast D.C.
