Update (3 p.m. Tuesday): from the amended criminal complaint against Ahmed Sule, five of which a jury found him guilty of on Tuesday afternoon. A summary of the verdict:
Count 1: Criminal sexual conduct, first degree. Guilty.
Count 4: Burglary, first degree: Guilty.
Count 2: Attempted criminal sexual conduct, first degree. Not guilty.
Count 3: Criminal sexual conduct, second degree. Guilty.
Count 5: Criminal sexual conduct, third degree. Guilty.
Count 6: Criminal sexual conduct, fourth degree. Guilty.
Update (2:30 p.m. Tuesday): A jury found Ahmed Sule guilty on five of six charges Tuesday, a year and a day after a crime that shocked Fridley: the sexual assault of an 84-year-old blind man in his home.
The jury deliberated for about two and a half hours before finding Sule guilty on separate counts of criminal sexual conduct in the first, second, third and fourth degrees. They also found him guilty of first-degree burglary, and not guilty on a charge of attempted first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
About a half hour before agreeing on their verdict, the jury passed a note to the judge with four questions (see below).
Assistant Anoka County Attorney Wade Kish asked that Sule be held without bail until his sentencing at 9 a.m. Wednesday, and the judge agreed.
The victim has since died.
An interpreter was on hand to translate the proceedings for Sule, who remained still and attentive as the clerk read the jury's decisions.
Kish and Sule's defense attorney, Jill Brisbois, declined to comment after the court went into recess.
Update (1 p.m. Thursday): The jury in the trial of Ahmed Sule on sexual assault charges passed a note with four questions to Anoka County District Court Judge Tammi A. Frederickson about 90 minutes after starting deliberations.
Frederickson brought the jurors back to the courtroom and told them "You are to rely on your own recollections of the evidence in this case."
The jury's questions were:
- How/why was Sule developed as a suspect?
- Was Sule included in a lineup on Sept. 19?
- What does at least two DNA samples mean? Could there be more?
- Was there a previous sexual or non-sexual relationship between the defendant and the victim?
Frederickson said there were actually five questions but one had been crossed out.
Assistant County Attorney Wade Kish and Sule's public defender, Jill Brisbois, were present and had no objections to the judge's handling of the jury's questions.
Sule was also present at the defendant's table. He word headphones and spoke to his attorneys and also to a translator.
The jurors, who all appeared to be white, consisted of seven men and five women. They filed out of the courtroom after hearing the judge's one-sentence response to resume their deliberations.
Original post (noon, Thursday): The jury in the Ahmed Sule trial began its deliberations late Tuesday morning at the Anoka County Courthouse.
Sule faces charges in relation to a Sept. 19, 2010, residential forced-entry and sexual assault on a blind 84-year-old Fridley man in the 6800 block of Seventh Street NE.
On the first day of the trial last Thursday, the jury saw , who has since died.
The original charges against Sule were thrown out last spring over procedural problems with police gathering DNA evidence. But evidence, including from cigarette butts, in order to pick him up again.
Look for updates to this story at Fridley Patch.
