Chief District Court Judge Merlin Wheel found probable cause to bind Abdi G. Abdi over for trial after a preliminary hearing Thursday afternoon in Lyon County District Court.
Abdi, 30, has been accused of stabbing Liban A. Ali, 24, multiple times during an altercation Aug. 25 at an apartment complex in the 900 block of East Street.
He faces charges of attempted second-degree murder or an alternative charge of aggravated battery with intent to do bodily harm; aggravated assault; and obstructing legal process.
During testimony at the preliminary hearing, Ali told the court that his girlfriend had dropped him off in the parking lot at the apartment building and he was talking with a man and woman at the top of the stairs near his apartment when Abdi approached them.
Ali said Abdi was carrying a beer bottle in his hand as he approached the trio from a stairway opposite the one Ali had used about 15 minutes before. Ali said he backed away to give Abdi space to pass when the defendant pushed against him and tried to squeeze him against the wall. Abdi allegedly began speaking rudely to him, using a Somali dialect instead of English.
“It wasn’t friendly,” Ali said. “It was like somebody want to pick a fight with you.”
Ali attempted to get to his apartment and had his key out to unlock the door when Abdi allegedly came from behind and stabbed him the back.
The men scuffled, with Ali slugging Abdi in an attempt to get away. Ali said Abdi stabbed him several times during the course of the altercation, which moved from the second floor of the building, down the stairs to the ground below.
“He was keep coming at me. I fight back because I didn’t want him stabbing me,” Ali said. “... I knew if I let him keep stabbing me I was going to die. I didn’t want to die. ... He was saying in my language he was going to kill me.”
Ali ran toward a stop sign and began to collapse. He testified that he was dizzy and having difficulty breathing.
“Actually, I didn’t have enough strength to stand up. ... My left knee was on the ground,” he said. Ali lost consciousness and did not come to until he was in the hospital.
Emporia Police Officer Bill Ross said that he saw bubbles in the blood coming from the wound in Ali’s back and the doctor at the hospital speculated that Ali’s lung had been pierced. Ali was kept overnight in the hospital and said that he continues to have pain from the incident.
Defense attorney Mark Manna asked Ali if he had been drinking, and Ali responded that he did not drink. Manna asked if Ali snatched a cigarette out of Abdi’s hand.
“No, I don’t even smoke,” Ali said.
Ali said he did not know Abdi, but recognized him from seeing him in Kansas City and Emporia.
Under questioning from Assistant County Attorney Rick Buck, Cammy Shaw testified that she and her boyfriend were talking outside on the second floor of the apartment building when Ali returned home. She said that the three of them stayed outside talking about cars for a time, and that Abdi had come up the stairs with a bottle of beer in his hand.
She said Abdi said something in another language to Ali, whom she knew as “Lucky,” and “Lucky wasn’t very happy about it.”
Ali attempted to go inside his apartment and Shaw and her boyfriend, David Lewis, left to go inside Lewis’s apartment.
“We had started to walk in ... and David said he saw a knife, and that’s when I called the cops,” Shaw said.
She saw Ali grab at his back and the two men began to flail and wrestle and Abdi came at Ali with the knife again, she said.
She described the knife as being six to seven inches long.
“It was silver and looked very sharp,” she said.
She said she couldn’t see the knife because Lewis blocked her view. When Ali tried to run away, she said that Abdi “came up behind him and stabbed him in the ribs.”
Abdi then ran up the stairs and grabbed the cellular telephone from her hands, yelled at her and told her she “shouldn’t talk to the cops,” she said. Shaw said that she had let Abdi have the phone, which he returned, because he still had the knife with him when he came up the stairs toward her.
Officer Jeff Eubank said that he had had difficulty getting cooperation from Abdi after he found him not far from the apartments. Eubank said that Abdi would not lie down on the ground and taunted him, in English.
“I truly felt he was going to instigate a fight and run from me,” Eubank said. He quoted Abdi as saying, “Come down here if you’re going to do this; do this.’”
Eubank eventually tried to use a handgun to get Abdi not to run and when that did not appear to be effective, he held a Taser pointed at Abdi to gain cooperation until another officer arrived.
Eubank said that because Abdi had talked to him for several minutes in English, he was confident that the defendant understood what Eubank was saying to him.
Manna said that the defense would not present evidence at the preliminary hearing, and waived formal arraignment. He asked that not-guilty pleas be entered to the charges.
A pre-trial conference is scheduled at 2 p.m. on Nov. 16.
Wheeler reminded Manna that Abdi is entitled to a speedy trial and that deadline is approaching.
“We’ll probably have to work very seriously to get this in within that time period,” Wheeler said.