A Buffalo man has been sentenced 25 years-to-life for killing his 10-year-old stepson with a rolling pin.
State Supreme Court Justice Christopher Burns this morning handed down the maximum sentence to Ali-Mohamed Mohamud. Mohamud, 41, was convicted in October on second-degree murder charges.
Prosecutors say Mohamud struck his stepson Abdifatah Mohamud 70 times with the rolling pin in the basement of their Guilford Street home last April. At the time of his death, the boy was gagged with a sock and duct tape, and his wrists were bound by an electrical cord.
The Buffalo News reports Mohamud spokes for several minutes at sentencing, saying he never meant to kill the boy.
“I took away a son I loved so much,” the former security guard told the court.
Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita says those remarks make no sense to him.
"There's no logical, reasonable explanation for such savage behavior," Sedita told WBFO News.
Sedita says the maximum sentence is appropriate based on the "brutal, heinous nature" of the crime.
"I thought Justice Burns hit the nail on the head when he said, 'You weren't helping your child. You were sacrificing your child.'"
