A case that began with a hallway rape and with at least five onlookers never calling police ended in Ramsey County District Court on Friday with a defendant seeking probation and treatment -- not a prison sentence -- to battle his demons.
Turns out, he'll battle them in prison.
Rage Ibrahim, 26, was sentenced to 12 years in prison -- the term recommended by state sentencing guidelines -- for an attack that occurred early Aug. 21 in an apartment building in the 300 block of S. Winthrop Street in St. Paul.
Ibrahim, a Somali immigrant who reportedly witnessed the murders of his father and two brothers in Mogadishu when he was 7 years old, was in an "immoral wilderness" of alcohol abuse for the two years before the attack, his attorney said.
But Ramsey County District Judge Michael Fetsch, while acknowledging a past "full of tragedy," told Ibrahim the "present facts are another tragedy."
Ibrahim's mother, Fadumo Warsame, 66, who sat with four relatives in the third row of the courtroom, said later: "The sentence was very harsh. ... It was not fair."
The victim did not attend, nor did she provide a written statement to the court. She is being shunned by the Somali community, prosecutor Jill Gerber said.
In earlier testimony, the woman said she had been drinking with Ibrahim and another man the night of the attack. Ibrahim began to touch her sexually, and when she told him to stop he slapped her and threw her to the floor. She then fled into the hallway, where he sexually assaulted her. A surveillance tape showed people peering out their doors.
