Michael Allan Palm Jr. Murder Case
Guilty plea in Apple Valley cabbie's stabbing death
Original Post Date: 5th Oct, 2010 - 12:29am
I don't understand. How they can call it unintentional murder when this man killed the cab driver with a screwdriver?
An Apple Valley man pleaded guilty to unintentional murder in the a stabbing last year, admitting in court today that he broke into the cab with a screwdriver and then used it to kill the driver, who surprised him. He had wanted to steal a GPS unit. Abdirahman Abdiwahab Abdikarim, 19, appeared in Dakota County District Court in Hastings before Judge Erica MacDonald, where he entered his guilty plea. Under sentencing guidelines, he now faces between 15 and 21 years in prison for unintentional murder. A grand jury indicted Abdikarim in December for first-degree murder in the stabbing of Michael Allan Palm Jr., whose body was discovered in his cab on Aug. 1, 2009 in front of an office building on Apple Valley's Glazier Avenue. Had he been convicted of first-degree murder, he would have faced life in prison. He also faced alternate charges of unintentional second-degree murder and intentional second-degree murder. His defense attorney, Earl Gray, said Adikarim's criminal history score had been "exaggerated" and he will argue for a downward departure from sentencing guidelines at his sentencing in December....
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