NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Tuesday morning, 43-year-old Michael Ebong, a Norfolk man facing rape and abduction charges for an assault on a woman back in May, went before a judge.

During Tuesday’s preliminary hearing, the judge agreed to drop the abduction charge. The rape charge still stands.

The alleged victim told the judge what happened to her on May 22 to 23 of this year.

The 39-year-old woman said she went out for a girls’ night with friends in Virginia Beach.

The last thing she said she remembers was being at a table with her friends at Seaside Raw Bar.

The next memory she has is coming back into consciousness in a dark, strange apartment. She said she felt like she had been drugged.

In court, the woman identified Ebong as the man in the apartment with her at that time.

She said she was fading in and out of consciousness while at the apartment.

She testified she was conscious at one point, although unable to speak or move, when Ebong raped her.

During the woman’s testimony, Ebong, wearing a black and white striped Norfolk City Jail jumpsuit and handcuffs, kept shaking his head.

The woman didn’t know her alleged attacker’s name at the time but said she remembered his face.

She didn’t report the rape until more than a month later when she saw his face and apartment in news articles on social media.

The articles reported a 30-year-old woman, Kelsey Paton, had died in his apartment.

A similar incident happened at the same apartment in November of 2020 when 36-year-old Sheena West died.

Ebong does not currently face charges in connection with either of their deaths.

The case will go to trial, the date has not been set.