AUBURN — Tests of critical evidence collected in the Halloween night killing of a Lewiston man in that city confirm the man charged with murder in that slaying wasn’t involved, his defense attorney said.
In his amended motion filed Monday, Lewiston attorney Verne Paradie wrote that clothing, a gun holster and other items allegedly tossed in a dumpster on Oct. 31, 2020, after the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Hassan Hassan on River Street were tested for DNA.
Abdikadir Nur Lewiston Police Department photo
Results showed that Abdikadir Nur, 21, of 303 Aspen Court, Auburn, was not a contributor to the DNA found on those items, Paradie wrote in a motion urging the judge to reconsider bail for Nur or have the murder charge against him dismissed.
“In the state’s affidavits for probable cause to arrest defendant and conduct subsequent searches, the state stated that a key witness observed another involved individual dispose of clothing, a gun holster and other items in a dumpster immediately after the shooting,” Paradie wrote in his amended motion.
“The clear implication was that those items were involved in the shooting of Hassan Hassan and that the shooter had asked someone to dispose of them. Based on evidence received today, we now conclusively know that was not the defendant, as he has been excluded as a potential donor to the DNA found on all of those items,” Paradie wrote.
He filed a motion last month seeking Nur’s release on bail or to have the charge of intentional or knowing murder dismissed, citing information from a witness that was “intentionally” left out of the affidavit supporting the charge against Nur.
The judge in the case denied Nur bail based on that affidavit.
In Paradie’s original motion, he wrote that: “The court relied significantly on that statement in determining that probable cause existed to deny him bail. What the state intentionally left out of the affidavit was that (the witness) also told detectives that someone in the victim’s vehicle also had fired a gun at or about the same time as she claims that defendant did so,” Paradie wrote.
Also “conveniently” left out of the affidavit was “the fact that an individual with the victim nicknamed ‘Werdi’ had been seen with a gun before the shooting and that ‘Werdi’ was avoiding law enforcement immediately after the shooting,” Paradie wrote.
A clerk at Androscoggin County Superior Court said a hearing hasn’t been scheduled on the Nur’s motion.
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