A Virginia teenager who pleaded guilty to killing his ex-girlfriend wants to withdraw that plea.
Earlier this summer, Nebiyu Ebrahim admitted he put repeated chokeholds on Jholie Moussa after the two met in Woodlawn Park in January 2018. Police say he killed her and then dragged the 16-year-old girl's body into the woods and covered her with leaves.
He also allegedly pulled out her cellphone SIM card and threw it in a nearby pond. Police said he didn't want anyone to know the two had been on Snapchat the night Moussa disappeared.
Moussa left her Fairfax County home under mysterious circumstances on Jan. 12, 2018. She told her twin sister she was going to a party in Norfolk, nearly 200 miles away. Fourteen days later, on Jan. 25, police found her body in a wooded area of Woodlawn Park.
In a five-hour-long police interview, Ebrahim calmly described in great detail the night he ended Moussa's life after meeting her in a county park.
"You know you're in a heat of passion, you're just, you're in a ... a blind rage," he told police.
Ebrahim said his anger stemmed in part because he had previously been convicted of assaulting Moussa by slapping her and once choking her to the point that she passed out. The assault led to his transfer to an alternative school, where he said he was unhappy.
As detectives pressed for details, Ebrahim showed them how he applied what he called an MMA-stlyle chokehold around Moussa's neck.
"I started choking her out more and more to the point where it was like ... Like, I don't know what drove me to the point," he said.
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
Moussa's family reported her missing, and her body was found two weeks later.
Ebrahim was set to be sentenced next week, but now his defense attorney has filed a motion saying Ebrahim wants to withdraw his guilty plea.
A hearing is set for Tuesday.
