County prosecutors and a Columbus defense attorney continued talks Tuesday on the fate of a 17-year-old murder suspect who has spent the last month in jail, waiting to be indicted.
Prosecutors charged Abdifatah Abdi, the 17-year-old, with murder and aggravated robbery for attempting to rob a house in new Marshfield on Feb. 15. During the robbery, someone shot county resident Donnie Putnam, 39, in the chest. He later died of the wound.
At a hearing two days after the gunfight, a juvenile judge decided prosecutors could try Abdi as an adult. That gave county prosecutors 60 days to seek an indictment from a grand jury. As of Wednesday, one month after the hearing, court records showed no indictment.
Assistant County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn said he spoke with Abdi's attorney, Isabella Dixon Thomas of Columbus, on Tuesday. Blackburn couldn't comment on the conversation.
Thomas said she's trying to work something out with prosecutors.
I think he's going to be charged
the question is with what Thomas said, adding she expects a decision soon.
Prosecutors still have another month to make that decision. Meanwhile, Abdi sits in the Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail. There, he's segregated from other prisoners and can't attend school, as he would in juvenile detention.
Abdi's parents, who brought him to America to seek an education, have taken the lack of schooling hard. In Columbus, where Abdi attended the Horizon Science Academy, he was a good student, Thomas said.
Horizon would not comment on Abdi or confirm whether he was a student there.
On Feb. 20, a grand jury indicted Phillip D. Boler of New Marshfield, Hamda A. Jama of Columbus, and Mohat M. Osman of Columbus for murder and aggravated robbery in Putnam's death. All are also in the regional jail.
The grand jury also indicted Eric C. Fussner of Nelsonville for murder and aggravated robbery. Prosecutors dropped those charges and released Fussner from prison last week. His attorney said Fussner was forced to participate in the robbery.
On Wednesday, Jama's attorney wrote in a court filing that he needs a delay to sort through evidence in the case. The state turned over 30 CDs of evidence to lawyers for the defendants, in addition to a three-inch thick stack of documents. The CDs contain audio recordings of interviews and 911 tapes, Blackburn said.
Osman, Jama and Boler belong to a drug-selling gang that operates from Columbus, Blackburn said in a hearing last month. Thomas has maintained that Abdi isn't in the gang.
No. He does not have the membership the tattoos
any of that
Thomas said.
We have a large Somali community in Columbus
Ohio
and they are a very proud people. They don't condone illegal activity and this sort of thing
Thomas said. For the most part they're hard-working
law-abiding people.
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