UNCC Instructor Faces Accused Attackers

Narayan Dhakal was once a promising graduate student who also taught a class at UNC Charlotte.

He moved from Nepal to the United States for higher education, but after an attack in October 2008 that nearly killed him, even elementary tasks are now difficult.

Monday, 18-year-old Maurice Weaver pleaded guilty to assault and robbery and also promised to testify against co-defendant Tireese Scott.

Scott, 19, maintains his innocence.

Just seeing the two alleged attackers in court upset Dhakal's brother.

“I can’t understand how one human being could do this to another,” he said.

Dhakal's family members weren't the only ones in court today---a dozen people he's never met also came to support him.

Members of the neighborhood group called “Friends of Fourth Ward” have followed this case closely since the night of the violent attack.

“This wasn’t just an attack on one person, this was an attack on an entire community,” member Ruth Scherr said.

The night of the attack, Dhakal was walking home from a bar in uptown Charlotte. Police said three men followed him, beat him up and took his cell phone and all the money he had on him, which was just $3.

Dhakal was in a coma for nearly four months and now, he's slowly recovering but will never get back to where he once was.

He and his family will make the trip up from Alabama for Scott's trial. Between now and then, Dhakal will continue to spend more than 15 hours a day trying to re-learn everything he's forgotten.