FAIRFAX, Va. — A Fairfax man, with a history of strangling his girlfriend until she fell to the ground unconscious, was sentenced to life in prison for her murder.
Nebiyu Ebrahim, 18, pleaded guilty in June for murdering his ex-girlfriend, Jholie Moussa, and hiding her body in the woods.
Moussa was just 16 years old when she was killed, on Jan. 12, 2018.
Ebrahim was given a life sentence in Fairfax County Circuit Court on Wednesday. He faced a room filled with Moussa's family members crying through a nearly four-hour trial.
Ebrahim had assaulted Moussa twice -- one time strangling her until she passed out. He thought she was dead.
Ebrahim was charged for those offenses, kicked out Mt. Vernon High School and ordered to stay away from Moussa. She told police that Ebrahim "would not allow her to break up with him."
The first choking incident was in December 2017. One month later, she was dead.
Today, her mother and twin sister said they’re finally getting justice for Jholie, and can finally begin to grieve.
"In a way I feel like this was a distraction in the grieving process for us, and now we’re going through another level of grieving," Syreeta Steward, Moussa's mother, said.
Steward said she could hear her daughter's voice inside the courtroom.
"It's been hell, and it's human torture, this whole entire thing, how court works," Moussa's identical twin sister Zhane, said. "I'm just so glad it's over."
"He had every opportunity to stop, and he just so purposely and intimately and with complete depravity kept going with the purpose of ending this young girl's life," Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Casey Lingan said. "He chose to show who he really was and that's a danger to society, and that's why we all, including the judge came down to the only appropriate sentence would be life."
Peggy Fox contributed to this story.