A 48-year-old Williamsburg man will serve four years in jail for stalking a William & Mary Athletics employee for more than a year and violating an emergency protective order placed against him.
Yasser El Sherief was sentenced Thursday afternoon in the Williamsburg-James City County General District Court after a judge heard witness testimony and saw screenshots of “threatening” Facebook posts written by El Sherief.
He was found guilty on misdemeanor charges of trespassing, violation of a protective order and two counts of stalking.
Judge Colleen Killilea sentenced El Sherief to 12 months on each charge – the maximum sentence for each misdemeanor.
“At least for the last few months, [the victim] has had some peace,” Killilea said about El Sherief’s time in jail awaiting trial. “I’m going to continue to ensure she has some peace.”
El Sherief, whose 48th birthday was the same day as the trial, has already filed an appeal on the convictions, according to online district court records.
Unwelcome contact
According to the victim’s testimony, she met El Sherief through her father in November 2014. Her father worked with El Sherief, and asked if he and his friend could stay at her house while visiting for a William & Mary sports game.
El Sherief, who is from Egypt, was living with the victim’s father and stepmother in Northern Virginia at the time, her stepmother testified.
“I was trying to be welcoming to one of my dad’s friends,” the victim said.
About five months later, El Sherief told the victim he knew there was an age gap, but he would like to begin a romantic relationship with her, she testified.
She declined, and told him she was in a serious relationship with a Navy SEAL and intended to marry him.
El Sherief continued to contact her throughout 2015, including finding her in a parking lot outside her office at William & Mary at dusk one evening, walking through the halls of her office building and following her through her neighborhood as she walked her dog, witnesses testified.
In April 2016, El Sherief attended several sports games involving the victim, none of which he was invited to nor welcome at, the victim’s father testified.
After the first game, William & Mary Police created a safety plan for the victim and banned El Sherief from campus.
The victim requested an emergency protective order against El Sherief in October 2016, after contact continued and he was charged with stalking and trespassing.
Violation of bond and protective order
El Sherief was granted bond after he picked up the first charges in October, but he continued to seek out the victim and post on Facebook about her, according to Prosecutor Joshua DeFord.
El Sherief was represented by two defense attorneys: John Konstantinou on charges of stalking and trespassing in October and Patricia Nagel on February’s charges of stalking and violation of a protective order.
A William & Mary detective testified that she saw El Sherief walking near the Dillard Complex on Ironbound Road on Feb. 21, 22 and 23, where the victim was involved with a practice.
DeFord read aloud from screenshots of Facebook posts made by El Sherief, which said “Just in case I get deported, I’ll be waiting for you on the other side of the world,” “See you tomorrow on the daily walk” and “Each time I go, I don’t know if I’m coming back.”
El Sherief was arrested on Feb. 23 for stalking and violating a protective order, according to court records.
Nagel and Konstantiou argued that El Sherief never directly referenced the victim by name in his Facebook posts, and he did not set foot on William & Mary property, although he came close while walking on the road near sports complexes.
They also argued it was unclear whether El Sherief was the person actually posting from the Facebook account.
Judge Killilea said there was “no doubt” in her mind the posts were directed at the victim.
“She told you in September 2015 to leave her alone,” Killilea said. “You continued to show up where you weren’t welcome… at that point I thought it would be sufficiently clear… but apparently it was not clear because you’re back here violating those orders.”
After the trial, DeFord spoke to a group of witnesses in the hallway outside the courtroom, including police and the victim’s family members.
“That’s as good of a result as we could have gotten,” he said, adding that El Sherief may be deported. A criminal conviction can result in deportation for immigrants, depending on their immigration status and the crime for which they are convicted.
DuFord declined to provide comment when asked by a WYDaily reporter.
Konstantinou and Nagel declined to comment on the trial.
WYDaily archives were used in this story.
Fearing can be reached at [email protected].
