By Mary Rooke
A 20-year-old man from Rochester, Minnesota, will spend less than six months in jail for raping two girls aged four and nine.
Mohamed Bakari Shei was sentenced to 176 days in the Olmsted County Adult Detention Center on Monday for two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with someone under 13, reported KIMT. Shei entered an Alford plea in Dec. 2022, pleading guilty while maintaining his innocence but acknowledging the evidence against him would cause a jury to convict him.
In addition to the jail sentence, District Judge Jacob Allen gave Shei 30 years of supervised probation and 200 hours of community work service, according to the report. Shei pled guilty to raping a nine-year-old girl several times beginning on Mother’s Day 2018 and another girl around four or five years old in 2021, reported the Post Bulletin.
Mohamed Bakari Shei, 20, of Rochester was convicted of raping two girls ages approximately 4 and 8 years old when the abuse began. Charges say the sexual assaults occurred multiple times.
He was sentenced Monday to 180 days in local jail.
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Olmsted County Senior Attorney Thomas Gort said Shei’s plea deal included a stay of adjudication and no prison time to prevent him from prolonging his prosecution, according to the report. Shei could have tried to challenge being tried in adult court since he was around 16 years old when he committed the rapes.
“With good behavior, Shei will serve, at most, 116 days in Olmsted County Adult Detention Center,” the report stated. “His jail sentence will begin Feb. 13, 2023. Shei was also ordered to undergo a sex offender program and complete 200 hours of community service.”
At Shei’s sentencing hearing, one of his victims gave a statement about her experience dealing with the sexual assaults. “There is no moving on or getting over it. I’ve tried,” she said, according to the outlet. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Oklahoma Sen. Jessica Garvin Files Women’s Bill Of Rights)
A family member of one of Shei’s victims told him he would “answer” for the sexual assaults that caused the child to become detached and introverted, the report stated.
“Some day you will have to answer for his egregious act against a child,” they told Shei in court.
Shei’s plea deal does not require that he register as a sex offender.
