Both the prosecution and the defense have rested in the Ali-Mohamed Mohamud murder trial in State Supreme Court. Closing arguments are scheduled to take place Thursday morning.
Mohamud, who admitted to police that he beat his 10-year-old stepson Abdifatah to death last April with a wooden rolling pin in the basement of their Guilford Street home, was not called to the stand, and no witnesses were called by the defense.
According to reporting from The Buffalo News, Erie County Chief Medical Examiner Dianne Vertes testified this morning that of the approximately 70 blows inflicted on the boy, four were fatal. His skull was shattered and his head was separated from his spinal cord. Two ribs were broken and there were internal injuries.
There was a stab wound on the boy's arm and fluid in his sinuses, indicating a near-drowning. He suffocated at one point while vomiting during the ordeal.
Vertes also said that the numerous bruises on his body indicate the boy was alive for much of the beating. She likened his injuries to those that might be suffered if he had fallen four stories onto cement.
