The Emporia Gazette

May 28, 2012

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Abdi G. Abdi, 30, pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder this morning in Lyon County District Court.

Abdi pleaded to the most-serious of the three charges that had been filed against him: attempted second-degree murder or an alternative charge of aggravated battery with intent to do bodily harm; aggravated assault; and obstructing legal process.

Assistant Lyon County Attorney Rick Buck said that his office had agreed not to oppose that Abdi be sentenced for a Level 4, person felony, rather than the more-serious Level 3, person felony sentence that accompanies a charge of attempted second-degree murder.

“We agreed to not oppose a durational departure,” Buck said. “Of course, that’s up to the judge.”

Abdi had been accused of stabbing Liban A. Ali, 24, multiple times during a public altercation Aug. 25 at an east-side Emporia apartment complex.

During testimony at the preliminary hearing in October, Ali testified that he had been talking with a couple at the top of the stairs near his apartment when Abdi approached with a beer bottle in his hand. Abdi pushed him and tried to squeeze him against a wall, then began speaking rudely to him in a Somali dialect.

As Ali attempted to go into his apartment, Abdi came from behind and stabbed him in the back, Ali testified.

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 testified in October. "... 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 and witnesses to the altercation testified in support of Ali at the preliminary hearing. Abdi did not present any evidence, and was bound over for trial.

Jurors already had been called for the trial that was to have begun this morning.

“They were downstairs waiting while we did this, so they got to go home,” Buck said.