The charge is now murder against a Franconia man accused of fatally stabbing his brother, a 28-year-old Chantilly resident. The victim was Saeed Deria of the Rockland Village community; charged with causing his death is Ahmed Deria, 30, of 6004 Burdon Court in Kingstowne.
Saeed Deria died Thursday, Dec. 20, from a single stab wound to his upper body. Fairfax County police have not revealed any possible motive for the crime, but they say the Chantilly man was asleep in his bed in his apartment, around 5 a.m., when the attack occurred.
Police responded to Rockland Village Drive for a report of a stabbing. They say investigation revealed that Ahmed Deria was visiting his brother at the time and allegedly inflicted the wound.
Saeed Deria was alive when police found him, but succumbed to his injuries six hours later, around 11 a.m., at Inova Fairfax Hospital. Detectives interviewed Ahmed Deria at the Fair Oaks District Station and then took him to jail, where he was charged with malicious wounding.
He had a Jan. 23 court date on that charge before Judge Jane Delbridge in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. But at that time the malicious wounding charge was dropped because the grand jury meeting the day before, Tuesday, Jan. 22, had indicted him on the more serious charge of murder.
Ahmed Deria has been held without bond in the Adult Detention Center since his arrest. He is scheduled for a jury trial, April 1, in Circuit Court.