Freddy Akoa, the Portland man found dead in his Cumberland Avenue apartment this month, had been beaten, kicked and bashed in the head with furniture by his drinking companions during an assault that went on for hours.

Akoa, 49, had 22 rib fractures from the savage attack, cuts and bruises all over his head and torso, and a lacerated liver when his accused killers left him on his living room floor in Apartment 18 at 457 Cumberland Ave. on the morning of Aug. 10.

Those details were made public for the first time Monday when a judge at the Cumberland County Courthouse unsealed an affidavit filed by Portland police Detective Christopher Giesecke to obtain an arrest warrant for three men accused in the killing.

The affidavit had been sealed at a prosecutor’s request for one week after three accused killers appeared in court, each on a charge of murder by depraved indifference. The three – Abil Teshome, 23, Osman Sheikh, 31, and Mohamud Mohamed, 36 – are each being held without bail at the Cumberland County Jail.

The affidavit details how police first learned of Akoa’s death on Aug. 11, and how clues left in the apartment and video surveillance camera recordings quickly led detectives to interview a witness and take the three suspects into custody.

But the document gives no indication of a motive for the men accused in the slaying, who were seen in surveillance footage entering the apartment building with Akoa and a woman on Aug. 9 at 4:40 p.m.

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Akoa’s mother, Jeannie Mendomo, became concerned after she couldn’t reach her son by phone and no one answered the door at his apartment. She called the building’s management company to check on him. Two of the company’s representatives used a key to go in the apartment after noon on Aug. 11 and found him dead on the floor with a swollen and bloodied face, Giesecke wrote in the affidavit.

The detectives who arrived found the apartment in disarray, with empty beer cans on the counter and clothes and trash strewn about. On the floor near Akoa’s head was a Bible splattered in blood. Beneath his body was an official court document with Mohamed’s name on it. On the kitchen counter was a purse with contents inside with the name of Jennifer Wilson on them, Giesecke stated.

That afternoon, two detectives found Wilson at the Preble Street Resource Center in Portland, and before they could question her, she asked them, “How is Freddy?” Giesecke wrote.

Wilson told police that she and Akoa and the three men had all walked together to Akoa’s apartment on Aug. 9 after buying beer at a Park Avenue convenience store. She told them that they had been drinking for only about 10 minutes before an argument began in a language that Wilson did not understand, the affidavit states.

Police later found Teshome, Mohamed and Sheikh in Deering Oaks park on the morning of Aug. 13 and arrested Teshome on a charge of criminal trespassing.

Teshome allegedly told Detective Richard Vogel in an interview at the Portland police station after his arrest that he had become angry at Akoa’s apartment and that he Mohamed and Sheikh all assaulted him.

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“Teshome said he lost control of himself and started hitting Akoa several times in the head. Teshome admitted to punching and kicking Akoa multiple times and knocking him to the ground. Teshome also stated that he also struck Akoa with his hands and feet while Akoa was lying on the ground,” Giesecke wrote.

Teshome also allegedly confessed that he used a board from a makeshift coffee table to beat Akoa over the head and to strike his foot, the affidavit states.

“(Teshome) said that he and Sheikh left Akoa’s apartment around the same time and that he believed Akoa was alive when he left,” Giesecke wrote.

Video surveillance footage from the apartment building shows Wilson and Mohamed leaving the building at 5:38 a.m. on Aug. 10, but Teshome and Sheikh cannot be seen in the footage, the affidavit states.

Police did not charge Wilson in connection with Akoa’s death.

If convicted of murder, each of the men will face a minimum of 25 years and up to life in prison.


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