NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A Norfolk man has pleaded not guilty to murdering two women and raping a third.
Michael Nse Eyo Ebong, 43, was arraigned on one misdemeanor charge and four felonies in Norfolk Circuit Court on Monday:
- Assault and battery (offense date on May 4, 2021)
- Intercourse through mental incapacity or helplessness (offense date on May 22, 2021)
- Object sexual penetration by force, threat, etc. (offense date on May 22, 2021)
- Non-capital second-degree murder (offense date on Nov. 15, 2020, victim identified as Sheena West)
- Non-capital second-degree murder (offense date on July 11, 2021, victim identified as Kelsey Paton)
Ebong pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him and requested to be tried by a jury. A trial date will be set later after a Norfolk Circuit Court judge decides if all of the charges against Ebong should be heard by one jury or split into separate trials.
Ebong’s alleged crimes span eight months. He’s accused of killing 36-year-old Sheena West in November 2020 and 30-year-old Kelsey Paton in July 2021. Both women died of drug overdoses in Ebong’s Ocean View apartment on Hillside Avenue.
10 On Your Side’s investigative team was in court on Monday when Ebong was arraigned. Our team spoke with Danielle Diaz, who said she and West were best friends for 10 years. Diaz was one of the last people to see West alive in November 2020.
The women were at Central Shore celebrating Diaz’ birthday on Nov. 14, 2020, when West left the bar without her personal items, including her cellphone. Diaz waited for West until the bar closed, but when the 36-year-old didn’t return Diaz assumed she’d left with other friends.
“We stayed for about a half hour, and I’m like ‘Where’s Sheena?’ Her stuff was still with mine. We left it on the edge of the DJ booth because we both had a tendency to lose our stuff,” Diaz said. “So I just took her stuff with me assuming I’d hear from her at some point the next day or the next night.”
Diaz wasn’t worried when she didn’t hear from West the next day. West had been drinking at the bar, so Diaz assumed she was resting. Diaz checked in with West’s job on Monday to see if her friend was scheduled to work. Her job told Diaz that West was on the schedule and hadn’t come in. Diaz was concerned, but also knew that West often complained about her job scheduling her for last minute shifts.
“That’s why I gave it until Tuesday, because I knew she knew she had to be into work,” Diaz said. “She loved her job. She didn’t show up on Tuesday, and that’s when I started freaking out. I made a Facebook post and let her family know she was with me and I can’t find her.”
Norfolk police discovered West dead in Ebong’s apartment in the 1200 block of Hillside Avenue on Nov. 15, 2020. The medical examiner determined West died of a drug overdose, including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl. The medical examiner originally classified West’s death as an accidental overdose, but Norfolk police later charged Ebong with murdering her.
Diaz said West would have never used heroin or fentanyl. She described West as a charismatic social butterfly.
“Just a beautiful person,” Diaz said.
“She would stop for anybody and help anybody. She really genuinely cared about people a lot. She really did. She had a really big heart,” Diaz continued.
Ebong is also accused of raping a woman in May 2021. That woman testified against Ebong in November, telling a judge she was with friends at Seaside Raw Bar in May 2021 when she lost consciousness. She told a judge that she came back to consciousness in a dark apartment and felt like she’d been drugged. She didn’t report the rape until more than a month later when she saw Ebong’s face and apartment in news articles on social media.