FARGO -- The man prosecutors described as the "least culpable" member of a federal witness tampering conspiracy was sentenced on Tuesday, Feb. 17, to four years in prison for his role as a lookout during the jailhouse attack on a cooperating witness in a years-old murder case.
Assistant US Attorney Matt Kopp told the court Ahmed Abdi Hassan Jr., 22, was "driven by immaturity and fear" when he participated in the planned assault and continued harassment of Joshua Brooks at the Cass County Jail in January 2023.
The origins of the case date back to the August 2020 murder of Santino Marial during a drive-by shooting in south Fargo. Marial was not the intended target of the accused trigger man, Jesse Burnett, who was trying to get retribution against some men who had allegedly stolen drugs and money from him, according to prosecutors.
For years, investigators were unable to determine who was behind Marial's shooting until another man, Andeus Smith, who had been in the car with Burnett the night of the shooting, was charged with federal gun crimes in 2022. He began cooperating with investigators and identified Brooks, who was driving the car. Brooks was arrested that September, and Burnett was arrested the following month and charged with murder.
In the following months, an administrative error led to Burnett getting possession of case discovery, which was supposed to be under a federal protective order, meaning it was sealed and not to be shared with any defendants. In it, Burnett learned that it was Brooks who had informed on him.
In January 2023, Burnett, who was staying in a different section of the jail, passed the information along to Shaquiel Mendez, a fellow inmate and the "pod boss" for the part of the jail where Brooks was housed. Mendez, in turn, shared it with Hassan and another inmate, Daniel Cisse, and the three planned an attack on Brooks to punish him for cooperating with the federal murder investigation against Burnett.
In court on Tuesday, Kopp said Hassan, who was only 19-years-old at the time, "thought it was cool" that he was being given access to the information about Brooks and walked around sharing it with other inmates. Hassan had previous violent run-ins with Cisse, who was known "for being a little bit crazy," according to Hassan's attorney Stormy Vickers, and was fearful "he might be next" if he didn't go along with the planned attack on Brooks, Kopp said.
The following day, Cisse stabbed Brooks with a pencil and punched and kicked him in the jail's basketball court while Hassan and Mendez served as lookouts, prosecutors said. Prior to the attack, Cisse showed Brooks a picture he had drawn of a rat with cheese and the word "fraud" written on discovery papers Burnett had obtained and Hassan had passed around to other inmates in the pod.
While Hassan played a role in the conspiracy, Kopp acknowledged he was the "least culpable" member of it in recommending a sentence of four years in the case, far less than the 10-13 years recommended by federal sentencing guidelines. Vickers concurred with the government's recommendation, telling the court Hassan had grown up in the years since the jailhouse attack, showing "not perfection but progress."
Hassan, whose brothers were present at Tuesday's sentencing hearing, apologized to the court, acknowledging his actions had been "unacceptable and very immature."
Chief Judge Peter Welte told Hassan it had been a "long journey" for him and sentenced him to four years in the lowest-level security prison closest to the Fargo area, with credit for time already served.
Previously, co-conspirators Mendez and Cisse were sentenced by Welte for their roles in the Brooks attack to 20 years and 11 years, respectively. Brooks, meanwhile, was sentenced to 23 ½ years on accomplice to murder charges in state court in August 2024 for his role in the Marial slaying. Burnett is awaiting trial on several federal charges, including witness tampering conspiracy, drug trafficking conspiracy and use of a gun during a drug trafficking crime resulting in death.