A family's exhausting three-year battle seeking justice for Jessica Hanson, who was killed by a hit-and-run motorist in south Minneapolis, came to a close Tuesday with a 39-month prison sentence for the driver.
Abdirahman Abdi Ali pleaded guilty to criminal vehicular homicide for running down the 24-year-old bicyclist on a July night in 2013. He ran through a stop sign at 28th Street and Pleasant Avenue without his headlights on, struck Hanson and left her behind as she struggled for her life.
Ali turned himself in two days later, after police found the vehicle with the help of witnesses. He claimed someone had been shooting at the car.
"In my eyes, what Ali did was no different than going into a shopping center and shooting a gun and killing a person," Hanson's father, Jerome Hanson, said during an emotional sentencing hearing Tuesday, adding that "39 months isn't enough for what you did and what you didn't do."
About 30 family members and friends traveled from as far away as Fergus Falls and Florida to honor Hanson, a Hoffman native, both at the hearing and at the scene of the crash. They recalled her photography talents, passion for travel and trying new foods, and hopes of making vegetable gardening more accessible to the poor.
"Jessica is the embodiment of all things inclusive [and] loving about humanity," Chad Kummrow, Hanson's cousin, told the court. Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" played in the courtroom as attendees and Ali watched a slide show of Hanson's life.
The family criticized the agonizing three-year ordeal they endured to conclude the case. Ali was represented by four different attorneys, one of whom died of cancer during an initial trial — resulting in a mistrial. Family members would travel hours to Minneapolis for hearings only to have some canceled at the last minute.
"This was an unbelievable case as far as how long it took to reach closure," said Judge Fred Karasov, who apologized to the family.