Robbinsdale man sentenced to 43½-year prison term for murders of his father, sister

A 48-year-old Robbinsdale man will be nearly 80 when he's eligible for supervised release from prison after a Hennepin County judge on Thursday sentenced him for murdering his father and sister.

Ibn Marchone Abdullah, appearing in orange prison garb inside an empty courtroom, pulled down his face mask to tell District Judge Michael Burns that he hasn't been able to grieve the loss of Marchone Abdullah, 74, and Crystal M. Abdullah, 55. Prosecutors say they were each shot once in the head while sitting in their living room in December 2021.

The executions came days after Ibn Abdullah was seeking to have them evicted from the Robbinsdale duplex they rented from him, according to court documents.

Regardless of his relationship with them, Abdullah said "I loved my father and sister dearly."

"I'm affected as well. I miss my sister and I miss my father."

Several relatives watched the sentencing via Zoom due to inclement weather. Only one read a victim impact statement, brother Terrence Johnson.

"It's been a year and a couple months since this all happened, since I last talked to my dad and he told me he would call me back," he said. "I'm still waiting on that phone call."

"I guess the person's mind was made up to do the unthinkable," Johnson said.

Abdullah went to Johnson's home in Brooklyn Park on Dec. 26, 2021, and confessed to shooting their dad and sister a few days earlier. Johnson then had his other brother go to the duplex where he found the victims sitting upright in chairs with gunshot wounds to their heads. The brother immediately called 911.

Police officers detected "an odor consistent with the ... deaths occurring several days prior," according to court records. Officers also found a Glock handgun and two discharged cartridge casings on the floor. They arrested Abdullah at Johnson's house without incident.

Abdullah's attorney, Jesse Dong, told Burns that Johnson was recorded on police body camera footage giving a statement to officers. Dong said that Johnson told police he thought Abdullah was paranoid and heard his dad and sister plotting for him to be raped and sex trafficked.

Dong said while there are no specific medical records to support mental illness, Abdullah never received necessary support or services for mental health concerns. He said if he had gotten that intervention, he may have "ended up in a different place than here" but "it does not excuse what occurred."

He asked Burns to consider Abdullah's mental illness and the fact that maximum guideline sentencing in this case would essentially be a life sentence. The sentencing range he faced was a maximum of 62 years and minimum of 43½ years. He got the lesser sentence with credit for having served about a year and two months in jail.

Per state sentencing guidelines, Abdullah will serve two-thirds of his sentence in prison, so about 29 years, and the remaining 14½ years will be on supervised release.

Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Jacob Fischmann told Burns that Abdullah could've been indicted on first-degree murder and received a life sentence. But considering his age, Fischmann said they didn't go forward with an indictment.

Instead, a jury convicted him on two counts of second-degree murder in late January.

Fischmann said because Abdullah "is capable of executing his sister and father," who were both "completely defenseless sitting in their home, in their easy chairs, doing nothing," there remains grave public safety concerns.

Burns said that Abdullah told his probation officer that he had nothing to do with the double murder and had "suffered a tragic loss." But according to the jury, "you were in fact the one who committed this crime," Burns said to Abdullah.

To relatives watching the sentencing remotely, Burns offered his sympathy.

"To the family, I'm sorry for your loss," he said. "I don't think there is anything else I can say to necessarily bring comfort to you at this time."