Fardoussa Omar Abdillahi appears in a Stearns County, Minn. Sheriff’s Office booking photo.
A Minnesota mother who allegedly told the authorities she slit the throat of a three-month-old baby and threw his body into a dumpster after the infant’s father denied him has been ruled incompetent to stand trial by a district court judge. That’s according to court documents reviewed by Law&Crime.
According to a statement of probable cause obtained by Law&Crime, officers with the St. Cloud Police Department arrested Fardoussa Omar Abdillahi, 27, after a 911 caller tipped them off that the defendant’s baby was dead. The male caller said “a baby was missing” and that the baby’s mother had told him “she had thrown the baby in the dumpster,” according to the probable cause statement.
The caller learned of the situation because the “defendant had called her mother, who lives out of state, in the early morning hours of November 28th” and reported the same; the mother appears to have tipped off others who went to the defendant’s apartment to see what was wrong.
“Responding witnesses were acquainted with the defendant and were told that she claimed to have killed [the child] and put him in the dumpster behind the apartment,” the probable cause statement continues.
The man who called 911 “and other witnesses went to look for [the child] but could not locate him,” the document goes on. “Witnesses were unsure at the time if the defendant was being truthful and called the police when they could not find the baby.”
The witnesses “went to help and found the defendant crying and alone in her apartment,” the document continues. “The defendant repeatedly stated that she had killed her baby and thrown him away.”
The baby boy was a little less than four months old, the probable cause statement indicates. The “defendant lived alone” with the victim in an apartment, it also states.
Here’s how the police described their involvement; the authorities referred to the victim in police reports as “Child A”:
Officers arrived on scene and spoke to the defendant. Officers observed children’s furniture in the residence, but no child present. Officers asked the defendant where Child A was located. The defendant stated Child A was in the dumpster behind the building. As officers were searching the dumpster, the defendant stated that she stabbed Child A and put him in a black plastic garbage bag before putting him in the dumpster. At the same time, officers located the deceased body of Child A within the dumpster. The defendant was placed under arrest and the scene was preserved.
Later, the police read the defendant her Miranda rights; she agreed to talk. She told her interrogators that she started suffering from “headaches and feelings of worry and fear” after the birth of the baby. The infant’s father was also “denying” that the baby was his, she said, according to the probable cause statement.
Again, from the document:
The defendant stated she was looking at Child A wondering how she was going to get help. The defendant admitted she stabbed Child A with a knife from the kitchen. The defendant stated Child A was crying prior to her stabbing him. The defendant demonstrated that she cut Child A across the throat. The defendant stated she put Child A into a black bag with baby clothes and put the bag into a trash bin in her apartment. The defendant stated she brought the bag out to the dumpster about five minutes after she stabbed Child A. The defendant stated she called her mom about twenty minutes later and told her mom what she had done.
The defendant was booked on Nov. 28, 2021, at 8:20 a.m., according to records at the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office. Bail is listed in those records as having been set at $2 million.
An autopsy revealed that the baby suffered a “circumferential sharp force injur[y] to [the] neck,” the probable cause statement revealed. “The manner of death was ruled homicide.”
According to subsequent court records on file in Stearns County, Minn., Prosecutors secured an indictment against Abdillahi for first-degree premeditated murder and second-degree intentional murder (without premeditation). That indictment is dated Dec. 22, 2021. The penalty for premeditated murder is life in prison; the penalty for second-degree murder is up to 40 years in prison, the document indicates.
After a few months of legal wrangling and a mental health assessment, a judge ruled that Abdillahi is not competent to stand trial right now.
“The defense has notified the prosecutor of its intent to assert a mental illness or cognitive impairment defense,” one additional Dec. 14, 2022 court document indicates.
A subsequent Feb. 14, 2022 document indicates that the defendant has been “committed” by judicial order to an inpatient mental treatment facility.
Prosecutors countered with a Feb. 15, 2022 document which indicates an intent to pursue the matter if — and when — the defendant “regains competency.” That document is signed by Assistant Stearns County Attorney Chelsa L. Beaver.
Court records indicate that Abdillahi is currently listed as “committed” and “mentally ill.”
The cases are numbers 73-CR-21-8647 and 73-PR-22-651 in Stearns County, Minn.
Read some of the case documents below: