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16 Year Old to Face Trial as Adult in Ax Attack on Student


Posted on Dec 03, 2009

Under Virginia law, a juvenile over the age of 14 can be tried as an adult --- in an adult court --- for certain crimes. The law is usually applied for the most serious of criminal acts involving a juvenile offender. Sadly, that was the outcome in the Hanover County Juvenile & Domestic Relations District Court December 2, 2009.

A Lee-Davis High School student, Omar K. Abdelaal, 16, will be tried as an adult, a Hanover County judge ruled yesterday. After hearing evidence presented,  Hanover Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Larry Gilman certified a charge of aggravated malicious wounding to a grand jury. He also set a tentative trial date for January 26, 2010, in the Hanover Circuit Court.

Judge Gilman viewed surveillance video that authorities say shows Abdelaal striking the victim, 15, with an ax at the Tractor Supply Co. in Mechanicsville after the school day ended Oct. 23. The video shown in court shows two groups of students milling about the store and talking, and then Abdelaal leaving the frame of the video. He returned moments later with a long-handled ax, peeled off a protective cover from the blade, and lunged toward the victim, striking him across the left side of his face.

The video ends with the two groups quickly leaving the store, and the victim left by himself with the ax on the floor and staggering toward the doorway.

The victim needed more than 120 stitches to repair damage to his face from a single blow, authorities said. The victim testified yesterday in court, and his face is still severely swollen and shows a long, crescent-shaped scar below his eye.

Abdelaal sat with his head bowed. He has been held in a juvenile-detention facility without bond since his arrest the day of the incident.

He faces up to life in prison.

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Mr. Stelly regularly appears in the courts of the City of Richmond, Henrico County, Chesterfield County, Goochland County, and Hanover County.



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