Jury deliberates in Burnsville murder trial

Despite defense questions about the crime's timeline, prosecutors said the evidence points to Taylor Pass.

By JOY POWELL, Star Tribune

Last update: November 4, 2009 - 9:40 PM

For 15 or 20 minutes after the accused killer fled a Burnsville stabbing scene, nobody called 911 -- not until a mortally wounded woman managed to move from her attached garage into her townhouse, a defense attorney contended Wednesday in the murder trial of Taylor Pass.

Moments after Tina SanRoman called 911 on April 7 to ask for help, her roommate, Odai Al-Refo, also called from another phone, just a few feet away from her, to report that they'd both been stabbed.

But where, defense attorney Arlene Perkkio questioned, was the state's star witness, Al-Refo, during that 15- or 20-minute lapse? She suggested that Al-Refo could have been the person who stabbed SanRoman and that he became busy covering his tracks, until he realized she had made her way into the house to call for help.

The statements came just before a Dakota County District Court jury began deliberating whether Pass, 19, of Eagan, committed the second-degree murder of SanRoman, 35, and also tried to kill Al-Refo, 24, who has since recovered from his wounds. The jury was sequestered overnight and was to resume deliberations this morning.

Prosecutor Lawrence Clark told the jury that the defense contention that Al-Refo committed the stabbing of SanRoman and then injured himself was "ridiculous." Clark said the evidence corroborates the testimony of Al-Refo.

"He found him [Pass] on top of his roommate, with a knife punched in her chest," Clark said.

He said that Pass then tried to kill the only eyewitness, but Al-Refo fought him off.

Clark said Pass' failure to summon help and instead to flee the scene were the actions of a guilty man. Shortly after the stabbings, Pass was arrested miles away in Savage, with the blood of Al-Refo and SanRoman in his hair and on his skin and his clothing.

"I don't remember what happened," Pass had told police.

Clark said some of the most compelling testimony in the case came not from witnesses who took the stand, but from the 911 recordings of SanRoman as she pleaded for help.

"Help me, help me, I'm dying," SanRoman, 35, had told the 911 dispatchers in a voice so raspy it sounded like a moan. And then, to her roommate, she could be heard saying "Help, Odai," as the tape recording of her call was played for the jury.

"She's not asking for help from somebody who just stabbed her," Clark said. "She's asking for help from somebody who's in a similar situation."

Clark also pointed to other key testimony, including from Al-Refo and police, and the evidence, including the blood of the two victims on Pass and his clothing.

But Perkkio insisted that police had arrested the wrong man, and that Pass was scared and confused when he took off after trying to help SanRoman and struggling with Al-Refo.

Perkkio pointed to the testimony of SanRoman's neighbors, who said they heard Pass leave SanRoman's Burnsville townhouse in a truck. Police didn't arrive for another 20 minutes, the neighbors testified.

"[Al-Refo] says he tried desperately to call 911, but we've got a 15 or 20 minute lapse," Perkkio said. "What was he doing during that time?"

Perkkio faulted the investigation by Burnsville police, saying that officers had decided within 10 seconds of getting to the scene that Pass, of Eagan, was the killer.

Joy Powell • 952-882-9017

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