The Minnesota Supreme Court rejected a claim that a teenager accused of killing three people in a Minneapolis convenience store is not old enough to stand trial as an adult, ending a yearlong pre-trial appeal and clearing the way for a September jury trial.
The high court upheld a district court order filed last year that said a "clear preponderance of evidence" proved that Mahdi Hassan Ali was at least 16 when the shootings occurred on Jan. 6, 2010, at the Seward Market and Halal Meats store in south Minneapolis.
Ali's attorney, Frederick Goetz, moved last July to quash the six-count murder indictment against his client, saying that because he was only 15 at the time of the killings, he wouldn't automatically stand trial as an adult. Goetz also said that an adult sentence of life without the possibility of parole would be unconstitutional at that age.
Goetz said that his client's date of birth was not Jan. 1, 1993, the date on his Minnesota driver's license, and blamed sloppy record-keeping in Ali's native country for the error.
That date would have made him 17 at the time of the shootings.
After a hearing that included molar analysis by a dentist who testified for the prosecution, District Judge Peter Cahill ruled that Ali was likely older than 16.
Goetz appealed, but the Court of Appeals declined to consider the issue, saying it lacked pretrial jurisdiction.
The Minnesota Supreme Court reversed the Appeals Court decision and agreed to hear the case. After oral arguments in April and June, the Supreme Court issued a three-page order on June 8, with a detailed opinion to be released later "so as not to impair the continuing prosecution of this matter."
