Teen testifies against friends in stabbing death of Beach man

By JON FRANK, The Virginian-Pilot

VIRGINIA BEACH - More than a year ago, 25-year-old Alhamdou Lillahi Ndong entered a laundry room at his Lake Edward apartment complex with no warning that his life was about to end violently.

According to testimony Wednesday in Beach Circuit Court, one of the teens - Xavier Wright - knocked Ndong to the floor and stabbed him three times.

Wright then handed the knife to his friend, 14-year-old Patrick T. Eleazer.

"And Patrick stabbed him three times," testified Stefon Bradley, who was several feet away as he watched the assault.

Bradley, 14, testified that he was uninvolved in the assault and that he had nothing to do with moving Ndong's body into a nearby closet. Later, it was moved into the woods behind the apartment complex.

The testimony came during the second day of Eleazer's first-degree murder trial. If convicted, Eleazer could face life in prison. Although still a juvenile, Eleazer is being tried as an adult.

Wright, 15, is scheduled to be tried in September.

Ndong, a native of Senegal, was studying pre-med at Old Dominion University. He planned to become a physician and to return to Africa to work.

On Wednesday, Bradley said he received a telephone call from Eleazer on July 5, 2005. He said Eleazer told him he was going to rob somebody.

Bradley said he did not believe Eleazer, but remembered, "I told him to go ahead and do what he was going to do."

Bradley said he visited Eleazer later that day still believing that the robbery would not happen. He said he had no idea that Ndong would be stabbed.

Bradley said he and the other teens were in the closet of the laundry room when Ndong came in. The three teens sprang out of the closet, and Eleazer began "bickering" with Ndong, Bradley said.

Bradley said Ndong swung at Eleazer, grazing his face with a key. Wright then struck Ndong from behind, he testified.

The assailants stole Ndong's wallet and cell phone, discarding both along with the knife. They cleaned up the bloody crime scene with Wright's shirt, Bradley said.

Days later, a man walking his dog found Ndong's badly decomposed body.

Because of the extent of decomposition, police could identify it as Ndong's only through laboratory analysis.