MOORHEAD, Minn. — A St. Cloud man who was serving life in prison in connection with what a judge called an “assassin-like” shooting in Moorhead will walk free.
The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the conviction of Ibrahim Abdiaziz Isaac due to insufficient evidence. In December 2022, Clay County District Judge Greta Smolnisky convicted Isaac of first-degree felony aiding and abetting murder for the Sept. 10, 2021, death of 32-year-old Abdi Mohamed Abdi.
The evidence against Isaac was circumstantial, Minnesota Chief Justice Natalie Hudson said in her opinion.
“We conclude that the State presented insufficient evidence because, when the circumstances proved are viewed as a whole, a rational hypothesis exists that Isaac only learned about the shooter’s plan after the murder occurred and, therefore, did not have the required knowledge or intent for aiding-and-abetting liability,” Hudson wrote.
Prosecutors claimed Isaac helped Idris Abdillahi Haji-Mohamed with the fatal shooting in the Griffin Court Apartments parking lot at 17th Street South and 30th Avenue South in Moorhead.
Specifically, prosecutors said Isaac and Haji-Mohamed drove together from St. Cloud to Fargo, N.D. Isaac then bought a black 2015 Chrysler 200 in Fargo and gave it to Haji-Mohamed the day of the shooting, according to a criminal complaint. Haji-Mohamed drove the Chrysler to Griffin Court and chased Abdi on foot while shooting at Abdi, according to court documents.
Abdi, 28, was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds.
Isaac asked for a trial without a jury to determine whether he played a role in the shooting. During a sentencing hearing Feb. 1, 2023, Clay County prosecutor Brian Melton said the shooting couldn’t have happened without Isaac’s help.
Melton claimed that Isaac bought bullets used in the murder and helped hide the Chrysler.
Calling Abdi’s death “assassin-like in its nature,” Smolnisky sentenced Isaac to life without parole, the maximum punishment for first-degree aiding and abetting.
Isaac called for a new trial, saying that his conviction was “an abomination.”
At question was whether Isaac knew that he was buying a vehicle that would be used in a murder, Hudson said. Hudson noted that Isaac was driving to St. Cloud as the shooting happened.
The shooter called Isaac after the killing, Hudson said. Isaac did not intend to help the shooter after the murder, she added.
The case will not come back to Clay County for a trial, Melton told the Forum News Service on Wednesday. He called the ruling “a terrible decision.”
“He was intimately involved in it, and yet the Supreme Court used a different standard to come up with the decision that they came up with,” he said. “The message is clear from the courts that, if you’re a mob boss or a drug dealer or just somebody looking to kill your spouse, if you live in the state of Minnesota, that’s the state to live in because the laws protect the criminal.”
Messages left for Minnesota Chief Appellate Public Defender Cathryn Middlebrook, who represented Isaac during Supreme Court arguments, were not returned by publishing time.
Haji-Mohamed is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the shooting. His attorneys have claimed that another person, who was killed in the Twin Cities after the Moorhead shooting, is responsible.
Haji-Mohamed also was found guilty for the Dec. 30, 2022, shooting death of 26-year-old Jeremy Ellis in Minneapolis. Haji-Mohamed was out of Clay County Jail on a $1.75 million bond in connection with the Moorhead shooting when he killed Ellis.
Haji-Mohamed was sentenced to 25½ years in prison for the Ellis murder. He remains in jail custody as he awaits his Moorhead trial.
That is scheduled to begin Sept. 23.
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