A jury recommended a 60-year prison sentence for a man who killed a gas station clerk in Virginia last year.
Prosecutors asked jurors to start their deliberations by watch again the security camera video that shows the final minutes of a husband and father’s life — a video that shows a very violent attack punctuated by Mohamed Abdullahi, who was 19 at the time, telling his 40-year-old Resham Bajgain seven times he was going to die.
Bajgain had just recently come to the U.S. from Nepal with his 5-year-old daughter to reunite with his wife, who was already in Northern Virginia.
He was working one of his two jobs at a Sunoco station in Herndon when a shirtless Abdullahi came in shortly after midnight July 4, 2018, saying his friend had been stabbed and he needed to use a phone.
When Bajgain couldn’t help, Abdullahi punched and stomped him. The fatal blow came when Abdullahi picked up a fire extinguisher and smashed it into Bajgain’s head.
Prosecutors argued for a life sentence, saying Abdullahi had already been convicted of multiple felonies for attacks on police officers and others.
“He will not stop unless somebody stops him,” the prosecutor told the jury. “That’s why he needs to be given a life sentence.”
Abdullahi’s defense attorney reminded jurors the minimum sentence for first-degree murder is 20 years and urged a lesser sentence.
“They are asking you to give up on a 20-year-old,” she said.
