A Minneapolis man who sexually assaulted two teenage girls in 2009 was sentenced Wednesday to more than 22 years in prison.

Yahye Abdisalan, 37, was convicted of criminal sexual conduct and burglary after breaking into a Minneapolis home on Dec. 17, 2009, and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl and her 17-year-old sister in their bedroom. He fled when the girls' parents came in to investigate. The mother, however, was able to pull the stocking cap off his head as he ran away.

DNA evidence from the cap and elsewhere linked Abdisalan to the crime, who fled before he could be arrested. It was months later before he was arrested in Canada and returned to the United States.

The judge decided that Abdisalan was a high risk for reoffending and gave him a lengthier sentence.

Abdisalan was sentenced to 10 years in prison for criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree and 15 years for criminal sexual conduct in the third degree committed against her sister. The two sentences will be served concurrently.

But he also was sentenced to more than seven years for breaking into the home. That sentence will run consecutively to the other sentences, bringing his total sentence to more than 22 years.

Mary Lynn Smith