Minneapolis slaying suspect was 15 at time, his mother says.

[EEGA9]

Minneapolis slaying suspect was 15 at time, his mother says.

Mahdi Ali, accused of killing three men during a robbery, wants his case transferred to juvenile court.

By ROCHELLE OLSON, Star Tribune

A Somali woman who claims to be 75 testified Wednesday in Hennepin County District Court that she gave birth to Mahdi Ali 16 years ago, meaning he was 15 when he allegedly killed three people in a Minneapolis store in January.

The testimony from Sainab Osman, now of Minneapolis, contradicted what she told courts and immigration officials in the past.

She was called to the witness stand on the second day of a hearing to determine Ali's age. He claims he was 15 on Jan. 6, when three men were gunned down during a robbery of the Seward Market on East Franklin Avenue. Prosecutors say he was at least 16, but his birth records aren't available.

Ali's lawyer, Frederick Goetz, said the case should be in juvenile court. A 16-year-old accused of murder automatically can be transferred to adult court. Even if Goetz wins this round, prosecutors likely would seek to have Ali tried as an adult through a certification process.

Still, his age eventually could factor into whether he would spend the rest of his life in prison.

Also on Wednesday, a prosecution witness testified that development of Ali's wisdom teeth likely puts his age on Jan. 6 at 17.04 years. The expert said the likelihood that Ali was 16 or older on that date was 75 percent.

Osman's testimony, however, was most unusual because of confounding contradictions and her defiance. She claimed to have been born on Jan. 1, 1935, but her round, unlined face belied her age. She was covered in dark, traditional Muslim clothing, so her hair was not visible. She claimed to have come to the United States in 2005, but she signed a sworn statement earlier this year saying she came in 2006. She acknowledged telling immigration officials the last of her 10 children was born in 1984, but she now claims Ali is her son. When she sought custody of Ali in Hennepin County a few years ago, she told child protection courts she was his grandmother. Recent genetic testing indicated she is his mother, according to court records.

Osman said she gave birth to Ali in her 50s, then gave him away because she was poor and ill. She came to the Unites States for a reunion with him, she said.

When Assistant County Attorney Bob Streitz asked what clan and tribe she was from, Osman responded through her interpreter, "I am Somali, and you see that I am Somali. Ask me another question."

Records show she told immigration officials she was in Ethiopia from 1992 to 1999. She said Wednesday she lied to them. She now says she gave birth to Ali in a refugee camp in Kenya in 1994.

The hearing is expected to conclude Thursday. Judge Peter Cahill must decide whether the state proved by a preponderance of the evidence that Ali was 16 at the time of the shootings. His ruling is likely to be appealed and delay Ali's trial, currently scheduled for September.

[EEGA9]

Habar Moriyaan ah dhashayna Moriyaantii dishay Ilma Warfaa...bal maxaa ku wata o'y isku ceebayn.

[Faarax-Caytame]

nasiib buuba leeyahay inuu gacan mareykan ku jira... GaboGabo iyo Toonceeleey hadey xirsi dalal kugu heli lahaayeen, Ilaahay unbaa xaalkaaga ogaan lahaa

[Queen_Arawello]

He doesnt look like his age fore sure...i hope they're executed for the horrific crime they committed

[guhad122]

While I applaud the mother in her bravery for standing up for her son, I have to admit that the Biaatch is behaving like a Midgaan...And as a matter of fact she looks like Midgaan...Afka-xun ee joboqon iyo ilka-yaryar. Doesn't she realize her stupid and coward son took the lives of three innocent people...Doesn't she know that the matter is now between Somalis. She is lucky if she is not deported. Whoever is giving her advice is not helping this woman...She should forget about this focker because I know for sure cowards like him are already being prostituted in jails.

[Teeri]

Habar Moriyaan ah dhashayna Moriyaantii dishay Ilma Warfaa...bal maxaa ku wata o'y isku ceebayn.

Why do you call Ilma reer warfa's mother Moriyaanti warya?

[ToughGong]

You can't blame the mother for trying all sorts to get her son out or lighen his sentence
Laakiin that murdering bastard should be electricuted for cutting short the life of a young father
People like that make my blood boil Wallahi.Instead of working to better themselves they copy gaalo thugs and go out and rob and murder (their own in this case) innocent people

Fuck him I say

[Teeri]

nasiib buuba leeyahay inuu gacan mareykan ku jira... GaboGabo iyo Toonceeleey hadey xirsi dalal kugu heli lahaayeen, Ilaahay unbaa xaalkaaga ogaan lahaa

The murdered men are Khalaf Hirsi dalal, as u might guess, it has been a shocker to us. if this was back home, it would have been dealt with the 3 option islamic method.

[EEGA9]

Habar Moriyaan ah dhashayna Moriyaantii dishay Ilma Warfaa...bal maxaa ku wata o'y isku ceebayn.

Why do you call Ilma reer warfa's mother Moriyaanti warya?

Never said such a thing brother.Talking about the lying mother.

[Teeri]

Habar Moriyaan ah dhashayna Moriyaantii dishay Ilma Warfaa...bal maxaa ku wata o'y isku ceebayn.

Why do you call Ilma reer warfa's mother Moriyaanti warya?

Never said such a thing brother.Talking about the lying mother.

Agah, war Hanqadho, i hear its u with a new name, why have u changed such a name.

[Berke]

I met cousin or brother, can't remember which, of the dudes who were killed in that robbery. He led the salat at the mosque several times. Cool guy. Showed me around several times. I think he is related to the owners of Mubarak Hotel.

[EEGA9]

Minneapolis market murder suspect to be tried as adult

Judge rejects claim he was 15 at time of triple slaying

By David Hanners
Pioneer Press
September 13, 2010

A judge ruled Monday that a teenager accused in a January triple slaying was 16 at the time and should be tried as an adult.

While acknowledging that Mahdi Hassan Ali's exact birth date is unknown, "the evidence establishes by a clear preponderance that defendant had reached his 16th birthday before Jan. 6, 2010," the date of the killings, Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill wrote in a ruling.

Under Minnesota law, 16-year-olds accused of first-degree murder stand trial as adults. But defense attorney Frederick Goetz had challenged the official birth date listed for Ali, a Somali immigrant, and said state district court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case because Ali was 15 and a juvenile at the time of the murder.

Cahill convened a rare hearing last month at which the defense and prosecution presented evidence on Ali's age. Witnesses included Ali's elderly mother, a homicide detective, a social worker and two forensic odontologists.

In his 11-page ruling, Cahill said four of the five defense witnesses lacked credibility. In particular, he complained about Ali's mother, Sainab Said Osman, who testified Ali was born Aug. 25, 1994, and not Jan. 1, 1993, the date listed in his official records.

"Her testimony was inconsistent and patently false in many areas," the judge wrote of the widow who had fled war-torn Somalia with her children. "She even stated that it is permissible to lie if it is in the best interest of the family."

Goetz had claimed the official date of birth listed for the teen was a fabrication that others invented to get him out of a Kenyan refugee camp, past immigration officials and into this country.

Cahill said the evidence that Ali was 16 at the time of the killings wasn't beyond a reasonable doubt, nor was it "clear and convincing." But there was a "clear preponderance" he was 16, and his case should remain in the district court as an adult prosecution.

The defense attorney said he would have to discuss the ruling with Ali and decide whether to appeal.

Barring an appeal, Cahill's ruling means Ali will stand trial Jan. 4, two days shy of the one-year anniversary of the shootings at Seward Market & Halal Meats on East Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis. Police say robbery was the motive, but Ali and his co-defendant, Ahmed Shire Ali, got nothing.

The dead were clerk Osman Jama Elmi, 28; his cousin, Mohamed Abdi Warfa, 30; and customer Anwar Salah Mohammed, 31.

Earlier this year, Ahmed Ali, 17, reached a plea bargain with prosecutors. In return for his guilty plea and promise to testify against Mahdi Ali (they are not related), the murder charges against him will be dropped and he'll be sentenced in February for attempted armed robbery.

Faysal Warfa, the owner of the market and a cousin to one of the victims, was succinct in his reaction to the judge's ruling.

"That's good news," he said. "We're waiting for this guy to get justice."

Like some in the Twin Cities Somali community, Warfa said he believes Ali is older than even the prosecution claimed — perhaps as old as 20.

Evidence presented during the three-day hearing, as well as police and family court records, indicate that Mahdi Ali has long used the Jan. 1, 1993, date of birth but that he didn't actually know his real birth date or even his birth name, Khalid Farah Arrasi.

For years, even the fact Osman was his mother was hidden from him. He was told she was his grandmother.

Osman was in her late 50s and living in a Kenyan refugee camp when Ali was born. Because of her age, poverty and health problems, she gave the infant to her niece to raise, but another couple later enticed the youth to come to America posing as their son, the defense claims.

Goetz had called Osman to testify that she gave birth to him in a Kenyan hospital in August 1994. She was a testy witness, especially when cross-examined by Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Robert Streitz.

In his ruling Cahill said she was "hostile and nonresponsive while testifying" and that some of her testimony was "patently false."

"Thus, while she could have been the best witness to provide an accurate date of birth for defendant, her assertion that defendant was born Aug. 25, 1994, is not credible and this court has given absolutely no weight to her testimony in this regard."

Cahill said the Jan. 1 birth date is an arbitrary one the U.S. government assigns to refugees who don't know their actual birthdays. The birth year they're given, though, is generally accurate, he contended.

"Refugee case workers, while in an immigrant's country of origin, will investigate a person's background as much as possible to narrow down the year of birth to what is most likely correct," he wrote.

Goetz had presented three other women who said they knew Osman in the refugee camp and remembered when she was pregnant and gave birth. Cahill also dismissed their testimony, saying he gave no weight to any of them.

He said all three were evasive, nonresponsive and often contradicted their own testimony.

Both sides had called forensic odontologists as witnesses. Dentists can sometimes determine age ranges from the development stage of the third molars, more commonly known as wisdom teeth. While both experts said there was a good chance Ali was 16 or older, the dentist who testified for the defense said there was a great deal of variability in the analysis.

He had testified that Ali was between about 13 1/2 to 19 1/2 years old at the time of the April examination and probably would have had a mean age on the date of the murders of 16 1/2 years.

The prosecution's expert placed Ali's age between about 14 and nearly 20 and said he would have had a mean age of 17 at the day of the crime.

The judge said the prosecution's expert "persuaded the court to give greater weight to his opinions and calculations."

Source: Pioneer Press

Alhamdulilaah, This is good news...Life sentence for this cockroach Inshallah.