Woman Pleads Guilty To Killing Her Baby

(KNSI) – A woman has admitted to killing her three-month-old child.

Fardoussa Omar Abdillahi pleaded guilty to one count of 2nd-degree murder with intent on Wednesday in Stearns County District Court. A count of 1st-degree murder was dismissed. Judge Sarah Hennesy accepted the plea deal and will sentence the 28-year-old on October 18th. Guidelines call for her to serve between 21 and 30 years in prison. She could have served life if convicted on the first-degree charge.

Abdillahi’s lawyer will argue for a sentence below the guidelines the next time they’re in front of the judge. The St. Cloud woman has undergone multiple mental health examinations and has been ruled competent to stand trial. Defense attorneys say they will use mental illness as to why she should serve less time behind bars.

Abdillahi isn’t a U.S. citizen and will likely be deported after she serves whatever sentence is imposed by the court. She was born in Djibouti and speaks Somali.

KNSI News was in the courtroom when Abdillahi admitted she was hearing voices on November 27th and 28th, 2021. Through an interpreter, she testified that voices told her to strap her three-month-old son into a car seat and leave him in her car outside. She told the judge she became worried and went to get him. Hours later, she testified that she again heard a voice, grabbed a knife and cut her son’s throat.

Abdillahi then said she put the child’s body in a trash bag and threw him in the garbage. After that, she testified she called her mother and told her what happened.

Investigators found the child’s body, knives and bloody bedding in a dumpster behind the woman’s apartment building.

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