minneapolis

It's now up to a Hennepin County jury to decide whether a Minneapolis teenager was the masked suspect who burst into a Minneapolis market and gunned down three men during a botched robbery attempt nearly two years ago.

If the 12 men and women on the jury say Mahdi Hassan Ali is guilty of first-degree murder, they must also determine whether he killed the men at Seward Market and Halal Meats in cold blood that January night, or fired the gun in a panic when he was recognized.

After nine days of testimony and arguments in Ali's trial on first-degree murder charges, the jury was handed the case for deliberation Thursday afternoon. The jury deliberated about 2 1/2 hours before breaking for the day Thursday. They will resume Friday morning.

Ali, 18, is charged with six counts of first-degree murder for allegedly shooting and killing store employee Osman Elmi, 28, his cousin Mohamed Warfa, 30, and customer Anwar Mohammed, 31, on Jan. 6, 2010.

His one-time friend, Ahmed Ali, who was not armed during the robbery, pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted aggravated robbery and testified against Mahdi Ali. He will be sentenced to 18 years in prison pending the outcome of Mahdi Ali's case. With good behavior, he could be released by the time he's 30.

During closing arguments, Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Robert Streitz retraced Ali's steps that culminated with the 7:40 p.m. shooting. Relatives of the slain men sobbed quietly in the packed courtroom as he replayed surveillance video of the men's last terrified moments and showed photos of their lifeless bodies.

"When we get up each morning, we never know what lies ahead," Streitz said. "Seemingly normal events may be anything but. Lives were changed because this defendant and his accomplice were carrying out a mission that left three people murdered and other lives changed forever."

Evidence against Mahdi Ali includes a pair of jeans found in his home with Warfa's DNA on them, and surveillance footage that captures him wearing the same clothing as the suspect who burst into Seward Market. But defense attorney Frederick Goetz, who called only three witnesses in his client's defense Wednesday, countered during closing arguments that Ali was misidentified, and reminded the jurors that any doubt should result in his acquittal.

"It's between guilty and not guilty. It's not between guilty and innocent," he said. "Possibly guilty, maybe guilty, even probably guilty is not guilty, unless you have proof beyond a reasonable doubt."

Goetz said Mahdi Ali was the victim of lies by Ahmed Ali and others in an effort to frame him, in part due to loyalty to their native Somali clan.

Even if the members of the jury believe Mahdi Ali was the shooter, they should think about his state of mind, a teenage brain that created a "rash, unconsidered, unthought melee that resulted in the death of three people," Goetz said.

If Ali is convicted, whether his actions are deemed premeditated means the difference between a life sentence for first-degree murder and significantly less for second-degree murder.

In his rebuttal, Streitz countered that the shots Ali allegedly fired were no "wild dispersion" from a panicked gunman.

"Six cartridge casings, six wounds," he said. "None of them missed the mark."

Abby Simons • 612-673-4921